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Quotes of the Day for 16 October 2003 - Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born at Dublin, Ireland on this day in 1854. Although his father was a well-known surgeon, his mother was a six-foot poetess who lived to create sensation, a trait that Oscar picked up. For most of his years he treated life as a performance, buying much of his clothing from theatrical costumers rather than tailors. At thirty he decided to become respectable, married, and sired two sons. But two years later he started sneaking off to Oxford to disport with young men and abandoned his family, claiming to have "forgotten the address." He spent the years 1888 - 1895 in a haze of liquor and young men, but managed to do most of his writing during the period. This ended when the Marquess of Queensbury accused him of improper relations with the Marquess' son, Wilde sued for libel, but in the course of the trial his homosexuality was revealed and Wilde was sentenced to two years at hard labor. Out of prison again, he wrote little, took the alias Sebastian Melmoth, moved tothe continent, and died penniless in Paris in 1900. He would have appreciated being remembered for his quotes.

I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

It's absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

One should either be a work of art or wear a work of art.

Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography.
     - All from Oscar Wilde, 1854 - 1900

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