Last update: October 06, 2016
Oscar Wilde has distinguished himself all his life for his biting humor. He was convinced that people did not listen, and told how he once attended a party where, as an excuse for being late, he told the landlady that "he had to bury an aunt he had just killed", and on hearing it the woman replied: “don't worry, the important thing is that you have come”.
He was the son of a writer and a surgeon and became famous for his plays, including "The Importance of Being Earnest", and for his unique and famous novel "The Portrait of Dorian Gray". He is also remembered for the sentences he uttered, through which he showed his critical thinking. Let's find out a few.
Quotes by Oscar Wilde
Live life fully
I wrote when I didn't know life. Now that I know the meaning of life, I have nothing more to write. Life cannot be written: life can only be lived.
At the time of Oscar Wilde there were certainly various sources of distraction, but certainly not as many as there are today. It is not difficult to come across someone walking on the street immersed in the screen of his mobile phone, as if he were a zombie, without looking or observing anything that surrounds him. We are no longer able to look up and observe life.
Life can neither be written nor seen on a computer or mobile phone screen. Life is what we touch, what we smell, what we feel in seeing the real world.
The importance of knowing how to make mistakes
Experience is nothing more than the name that man gives to his mistakes.
Throughout our life we ​​make many mistakes and it is from those mistakes that we learn and we don't repeat them. These lessons that life gives us are what we call experience.
The real strength of any person lies in learning from every experience, be it positive or negative. Getting up every time life demoralizes us and doing it full of hope for the future, denying the idea that the past is the best way to know what will happen.
The rules of writing
There are no more than two rules for writing: having something to say and saying it.
Oscar Wilde wrote many plays, short stories, poems, only to finally realize that the important thing is to have something to say and, simply, to say it. Many writers have thought of countless rules for writing, and many others have followed those rules or have invented new ones themselves.
In fact, at the time of writing or stumbling in life there are only two things that are really important: having an idea and putting it into practice. We can read rules, follow them, apply them, but what really matters is to stimulate creativity, the birth of our own ideas and the implementation of each of them. Dreams are beautiful, but it is essential to have a clear understanding of the value of turning them into reality.
Love the most important person in your life
Loving yourself is the beginning of an idyll that lasts a lifetime.
Self-esteem, the act of loving yourself, is the basis for a healthy life. We are aware of how much other people's opinions hurt us and how many negative things we say to ourselves. It is important to put a limit and reflect on all the good and beautiful things that are present in our life.
Stop for a moment to think about what you say to yourself every day. Change those "can't" to "I want to". Willpower is the first step in being able to do what you want. Do not allow your mind to tell you negative things, do not place barriers to your existence.
Celebrate friends' successes
Anyone can sympathize with a friend's pain, but only a noble soul can sympathize with a friend's success.
We live in a society where envy reigns towards the successes of others. Many people act untruthfully and say they rejoice when things go well for others, but in reality they are unable to rejoice in someone else's successes, because inside they are corroded by envy.
Oscar Wilde was one of the protagonists of his era. Born into a wealthy family, he had the opportunity to live a comfortable life. At one point, however, he was forced to spend two years in prison. Once he was released from prison, he moved to Paris, changed his name and stayed there until he was 46, when he died in absolute poverty.
Learn to honestly rejoice in your friends' successes. The sensitivity that such honesty requires is necessary to have healthy and lasting relationships with other people. Look for people who rejoice in your successes and sincerely celebrate them with you.
Get to work
Once we discover the laws that govern life, we will realize that the man of action is the only person who has more illusions than the dreamer.
We spend a lot of time dreaming, thinking about what we would like to do as we get absorbed in daily chores. In this way we end up losing enthusiasm, as we see our dreams moving further and further away, without doing anything to try to reach them; doing so would mean putting everything at risk and stepping out of our comfort zone.
Oscar Wilde was a dreamer. Being a dreamer, however, is not enough, you have to get to work. Find what you are passionate about and make it a part of your life. You only live once and time is limited, so dive into your passions and take advantage of every single second of every single minute.
Follow your heart and go crazy
The world was made by fools for the wise to live in.
In life you have to let yourself go to madness, to what the heart and intuition suggest. Your heart knows exactly what it wants, even if you deny it. Listen to its beats. Remember that many of the people who achieved great successes in human history in their time were mistaken for insane.
If you want to go on a trip, do it; if you want to kiss someone you like, do it; if you don't like your job, leave it and look for another one; if you want to paint pictures, buy a brush, some paints and start painting. It is your life, no one will live it for you and no one will give you another to be able to live it again.
