Withering wit and words of wisdom: Oscar Wilde's best quotes

14 December 2020

The Importance of Being Oscar goes beyond caricature to explore Wilde's glittering and controversial career. This feature-length drama-doc is showing alongside a brilliant film comedy, a tragic monologue and a movie biopic over a day celebrating the great man on BBC Two. To lift the mood in readiness, we've selected our favourite examples of the legendary Wildean wit that still hit their mark 166 years after his birth.

Colourized photograph of Oscar Wilde posing with a cigarette | Photo from Roger-Viollet Collection / Getty Images.

Nicholas Rowe as Oscar Wilde in The Importance of Being Oscar | Photo: BBC / IWC Media

I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.

Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.

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

I can resist everything except temptation.
Lady Windermere's Fan

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), portrait by Napoleon Sarony | From the 1882 sitting Oscar Wilde did at Sarony's studio when he began his American lecture tour. | Historica Graphica Collection / Heritage Images / Getty Images

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
The Importance of Being Earnest

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

Oscar Wilde modelling for Napoleon Sarony in 1882 | Photo © Corbis / Getty Images

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
The Picture of Dorian Gray

Mrs Arbuthnot (Alice Orr-Ewing) and Lord Illingworth (Ed Stoppard) in A Woman of No Importance | Photo: BBC/IWC Media

The Importance of being Oscar features highlights from Wilde’s work including The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Canterville Ghost, performed by a cast including Freddie Fox, Claire Skinner, Anna Chancellor and James Fleet.

Wilde enthusiasts and experts, including Stephen Fry, Wilde’s grandson Merlin Holland and his latest biographers, provide revelatory accounts of how his own life informed his work. Wilde's Irish roots, his early career, his marriage and the importance of women as well as men in his life all combine in a complex and compelling characterisation of the great writer.

The Importance of Being Earnest, 2pm
A starry screen adaptation of Oscar Wilde's celebrated play in which two Victorian gentlemen both adopt a double identity.
The Happy Prince, 9pm
Biopic about the final years of playwright Oscar Wilde, as an exiled Wilde looks back on his life from his deathbed in a small Parisian flat, longing for a return to happier times.
Corin Redgrave: De Profundis, 10.35pm
An edited version of De Profundis performed at Reading Gaol, the site of its creation, distilling a powerful monologue that lays bare Wilde's dreadful anguish.
The Importance of Being Oscar, 11.20pm
A feature-length, complex and compelling characterisation and celebration that adds flesh to the bones of a man who is too often caricatured.