Oscar Wilde's Wit and Wisdom: A Book of Quotations (Dover Thrift Editions: Speeches/Quotations)

I’m a fan of Oscar Wilde and have read most of his literature and plays. I was always aware of his wit and now it’s nice to have this little book to review his comments.

Great item and seller. Thanks

The market for this book depends mainly on two factors, it is cheap (probably out of copyright) and has a niche. This was my third or fourth copy, I keep one handy to look up quotations and give or lend them out.If you have never read Wilde, get this small volume and read it in very small bits. You can't be faulted for wasting time reading Oscar Wilde and if you get a couple of cool quotes to impress your friends, you have gotten your money's worth. If you like it, there is plenty more of Wilde to read later.If you are like me (old as dirt) and have a habit of giving or lending books to a younger generation I recommend buying several copies at this price. You'll run out of them eventually.In your grandfather's time, not knowing Oscar Wilde was a sign of intellectual illiteracy. Not so much now, but still a good reason to be acquainted with his work. Besides, why pass up a chance to be a bibliophile snob on the cheap?

It's amazing that someone who wrote over 100 years ago should still be so interesting now. His quotes arestill relevant.

Oscar Wilde, for all his wit and wisdom was a man unable to survive his abbreviated lifetime. A married Gay man representing himself publicly as straight (not a word so commonly used to represent sexuality in the 19th Century) was eventually drawn into the courts of Great Britain surprising Wilde beyond his comprehension. His self-interests were not legally appreciated in the U.K. at that time resulting in his imprisonment. Wilde was witty, brave, and held much contempt for those who could not possibly understand the lifestyles of those who were so easily discriminated against and so swiftly thrust into jail. The Oscar Wilde depicted through his wit and wisdom is how I am certain he wanted to be remembered. Writing and dying under an assumed name, Sebastian Melmoth was nothing of the outcome he would have expected. I believe, however, and to his satisfaction, he presents himself to us as we know him: a great and clever author and poet.

Oscar Wilde was a remarkable person beyond his means of expressing life as he discovered it. His acerbic nature was the disguise he used in order to survive; imprisoned for simply being himself, Wilde nonetheless fought for his rights to speak, even to breathe until even that was taken from him. His years away from Ireland and Britain were far from easy; writing under an assumed name, Sebastian Malmuth, Wilde remained in character, but only when he chose to again appear publicly through his words. Persecuted for what some believed to be indecent and immoral, Wilde was imprisoned and in essence, forgotten, but he remains today an open mind expressing many things from the psyche and the heart. He was brilliant yet fragile and in our era, our time, his success would have been ten times fold; genius has many names, and Oscar Wilde is among them.

Oscar Wilde stands alone. He may have promoted himself, as he should have done because he had a lot of wisdom to share.It has come to my attention that people prefer to judge any Author by their lives rather than listen/read their wisdom.My advice is to ignore all the yap, yap, yap about who wrote what and why and just READ the writings. For some reason the silly "check the blanks" offered by Amazon and/or other organizations is to be ignored.Perhaps it is the attempt to give people who are obsessed with judging some statistics to justify their heart felt censorship if some writings goes against their own shallow conceptions and beliefs.I does make me question the next BOOK BURNING - and witch burning, as well.

Oscar Wilde was one of the most brilliant men to ever live and his oeuvre definitely deserves a quote book of its own. I realize that he has several but I bought this one recently and on the cheap (I got mine used from a z shop). Here the great playwright's observations are subdivided into chapters concerning men, women, marriage, youth, sin, religion, journalism, wealth, England, America etc. It's a concise collection but contains nearly 60 pages of priceless insight. Wilde sums up a large amount of human nature almost effortlessly via the words of the characters found in his works. In fact, if you ever need a source regarding just about anything cultural he's a wonderful authority. It's too bad he did not live in our times as his irreverence would have been better appreciated and celebrated--at least by those of us who are not politically correct. Rest in Peace, hero.

Who doesn't know these wordsWe are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars

Some quotes are better than others. Looks like it was put together in a rush and they tried to save on the cheap paper. Different sections do not start on a new page. They just run on, where the last one finishes

Liked the fact that this arrived when expected. Quality of paper not great but the content is good and the price reflected the quality of the edition. It was a supplementary gift for a 60th Birthday - recipient was pleased and found it a good reference for dipping into.

I love the wit and wisdom of Wilde and have done for years. The product fits the description. Great for dipping into at any time. Along with the wit and wisdom of Dickens and Twain to.go with it. Heaven

For me this was a sate of money, it seemed to contain boring quotes and not his wittiest