Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Oscar Wilde
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by: phil.yaffe@yahoo.com
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by Philip Yaffe
Part 2 of an occasional series
I am a collector of quotations. I have been ever since I learned how to
write, I mean professionally, not in primary school.
I am particularly fond of what I like to call "pithy prose".
These short quotations can cover an unlimited variety of subjects: love,
religion, politics, human nature, etc. What unites them is their ability to say
more in one or two sentences than could be expressed in a thousand-word treatise.
It's like being able to pour a liter of liquid into a half-liter bottle.
They are superb examples of Mark Twain's famous dictum, "The
difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference
between lightning and a lightning bug."
In principle, all writers and public speakers are capable of producing
pithy prose, but clearly some are better at it than others.
Any collection of pithy prose must necessarily be biased in terms of
what it includes and excludes. I make no apologies for my selections, only for
the hundreds of other meritorious quotations I had to leave out.
No one will agree with all these quotations; this was not their
intention. You may even find some of them repugnant or outrageous. This was
their intention.
We seldom learn anything of value from what we already agree with. Only
those ideas that grate on our nerves can open our minds. As with oysters,
irritation can produce pearls. So if anything you are about to read annoys or
shocks you, try to think clearly and dispassionately about what it is saying.
You will either be confirmed in your current belief or shaken into re-examining
it.
Either way, you win!
This article is part of an occasional series. In each article, I will be
offering more amusing, educating, and exasperating quotations to your judgment.
But just to be certain that we agree on what we are talking about, here it is
in a nutshell.
Pithy Prose: A quotation where at first you may not be quite certain
what it means. But when you become certain, you become equally certain that it
couldn't have been said better any other way. In short, big ideas in small
packages.
If you have a better definition of pithy prose, please contact me. I
would love to hear it.
Who Is Oscar Wilde?
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), whose full name was
Oscar Fingal O'Flaherty Wills Wilde, was a renowned Irish dramatist, novelist, and poet. His best
known plays are "The Importance of Being Earnest", "Lady
Windermere's Fan", and "An Ideal Husband", three delicious
society farces. "The Picture of Dorian Gray", his only novel, a dark
tragedy, is considered to be a classic.
In 1895 Wilde was imprisoned for two years for homosexual offenses. "The
love that dare not speak its name", a euphemism for homosexuality. Is
closely associated with Wilde because he used it during his trial. However, the
phrase actually comes from the poem "Two Loves", published in 1894 by
Lord Alfred Douglas.
Wilde was widely known for his barbed wit, which is clearly reflected in
the following quotations.
1. A cynic is
a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.
2. A dreamer is one
who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the
dawn before the rest of the world.
3. A gentleman is one
who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally.
4. A man who does not
think for himself does not think at all.
5. A man's face is
his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.
6. A thing is not
necessarily true because a man dies for it.
7. A true friend
stabs you in the front.
8. All women become
like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.
9. Always forgive
your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.
10. An idea that is not
dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
11. As long as war is
regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon
as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
12. Bigamy is having
one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.
13. By giving us the
opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of
the community.
14. Children begin by
loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they
forgive them.
15. Fashion is a form of
ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
16. I always
pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use
to oneself.
17. I am so clever that
sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
18. I can resist
everything except temptation.
19. 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.
20. I sometimes think
that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.
21. If there was less
sympathy in the world, there would be less trouble in the world.
22. Illusion is the
first of all pleasures.
23. Life is never fair, and
perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
24. Man can believe the
impossible, but man can never believe the improbable.
25. Man is a rational
animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance
with the dictates of reason.
26. One's real life is so often
the life that one does not lead.
27.
Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two
evils, chooses both.
28. Society exists only
as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.
29. The critic has to
educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.
30. The cynic knows the
price of everything and the value of nothing.
31. The only thing to
do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.
32. The pure and simple
truth is rarely pure and never simple.
33. The well bred
contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.
34. The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.
35. There are many
things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick
them up.
36. There is a luxury
in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to
blame us.
37. There is always
something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love.
38. This suspense is
terrible. I hope it will last.
39. To expect the
unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.
40. We are all in the gutter, but
some of us are looking at the stars.
41. When the gods wish
to punish us, they answer our prayers.
42. Whenever a man does
a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.
43. Whenever people
agree with me, I always feel I must be wrong.
44.
Woman begins by resisting a man's advances and ends by
blocking his retreat.
Previously in this Series
Part 1: Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Mark
Twain
Philip Yaffe is a former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street
Journal and a marketing communication consultant. He currently teaches a course
in good writing and good speaking in
published book In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing &
Speaking (Almost) like a Professional is available from Story Publishers in
(storypublishers.be) and Amazon (amazon.com).
For further information, contact:
Philip
Brussels
Tel: +32 (0)2 660 0405
phil.yaffe@yahoo.com, phil.yaffe@gmail.com
About the Author
Philip Yaffe is a
former writer with The Wall Street Journal and international marketing
communication consultant. He now teaches courses in persuasive communication in
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