Nineteenth century

Oscar Wilde

1854–1900

Playwright of the epigram

He manufactured lines people still print on objects, including several he never wrote. The real epigrams are meaner. Temptation, and the gutter with stars in it, belong to plays, where a character has to pay for saying them.

In the canon

  1. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.Lady Windermere’s Fan
  2. I can resist everything except temptation.Lady Windermere’s Fan

All voices