Seven Inspirational Oscar Wilde Quotes to Reflect Upon
Oscar Wilde was characterized by a sharp wit. One of his observations was that people generally don’t listen to others. He used to recount a story about how, when he was late for a party once, he informed the hostess that he’d had to bury an aunt of hers whom he’d just murdered. The hostess replied, “Don’t worry, the most important thing is that you’ve come.”
Wilde was the son of a writer and a surgeon and became well known for his plays. These included The Importance of Being Earnest and his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. He’s also remembered for certain sayings that demonstrated his way of thinking. In this article, we take a look at seven of them.
Live life fully
“I wrote when I did not know life; now that I do know the meaning of life, I have no more to write. Life cannot be written; life can only be lived”.
There were undoubtedly distractions around when Oscar Wilde was alive. However, today they’ve multiplied. Indeed, it’s not uncommon to come across someone walking down the street engrossed in their phone screen. It’s almost as if they were a zombie, they certainly don’t notice anything around them. In fact, they seem unable to look up from the screen and observe life.
However, life can’t be written or viewed on a computer or mobile screen. Life is what you touch, what you smell, and what you feel when you see the real world.
The importance of knowing how to be wrong
“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes”.
Throughout our lives, we make many mistakes. It’s from those mistakes that we learn what shouldn’t happen again. These lessons that life gives us are what we call experience.
The true strength of any person comes from learning from every experience, whether it be positive or negative. Therefore, get up every time life throws you to the floor. Furthermore, do it with enthusiasm. Think of the future, don’t ever believe that the past predicts what’s to come.
The rules of writing according to Oscar Wilde
“There are only two rules for writing: have something to say and say it”.
Over the course of time, many writers have invented innumerable writing rules. However, Wilde, with his multitude of plays, stories, and poems under his belt, suggested that the one important thing is to have something to say and simply say it.
As a matter of fact, in reality, whether writing or stumbling through life, only two things are important: having an idea and putting it into practice. You can read the rules, follow them, and apply them, but the most important thing is to encourage your creativity, the generation of your own ideas, and the implementation of each one of them. Indeed, dreams are undoubtedly beautiful, but having the courage to make them come true is essential.
Love the most important person in your life
“Loving yourself is the beginning of an idyll that will last a lifetime”.
Self-esteem and loving yourself make up the foundations to a healthy life. However, in reality, the opinions of others tend to affect you too much and you have a tendency to tell yourself too many negative things. Therefore, it’s important to set limits and reflect on all the good and beautiful things in your life.
Take a moment and think about what you say to yourself each day. Change the “I can’t” to “I’m going to do it.” Your own will is the first step towards doing what you want. Don’t allow your mind to tell you negative things and don’t put up barriers to your own existence.
Celebrate the success of your friends
“Anyone can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success”.
We live in a society where envy towards the success of others reigns. In fact, many people act falsely and say they’re happy that other people are doing well. However, in reality, they’re not really happy for others, because internally, they’re eaten up with envy.
Oscar Wilde experienced both success and failure in his life. He was born into a wealthy family and lived a wealthy life. Nevertheless, at one point in his life, he made a mistake and was imprisoned for two years. Upon leaving prison, he moved to Paris, changed his name, and died at the age of 46 in absolute destitution.
Learn to be honest about your friends’ successes. Being honest requires a certain sensitivity that’s necessary if you want to have healthy and lasting relationships with other people. In the same way, find people who rejoice in your own successes and who celebrate them genuinely with you.
Take action now
“The one person who has more illusions than the dreamer is the man of action”.
You spend a lot of time dreaming and thinking about what you want to do. That’s because you tend to get absorbed by your daily chores. In this way, you lose hope because you see your dreams as increasingly distant. Furthermore, you do nothing to achieve them or to get out of your comfort zone and take risks.
Oscar Wilde was a dreamer. However, it’s not enough to be a dreamer, you need to get down to work. Find out what it is that you’re passionate about and make it a part of your life. You only live once and time is precious, so throw yourself into your passion and enjoy every minute as much as possible.
Follow your heart and do crazy things
“I quite agree with Dr. Nordau’s assertion that all men of genius are insane, but Dr. Nordau forgets that all sane people are idiots”.
In this life you have to do crazy things, you have to follow both your heart and your intuition. Your heart already knows what you want, even if your mind denies it, so listen to it. Remember that many of the people who achieved great things in the history of mankind were considered crazy in their day.
Therefore, if you want to go on a trip, go. If you want to kiss a person who attracts you, kiss them. If you don’t like your job, leave it and find another one. Do you want to paint pictures? Buy a canvas and some oil paints and start painting. It’s your life, no one is going to live it for you. Furthermore, no one is going to give it to you to live over again.