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Oscar Wilde > Quotes > Quotable Quote

Oscar Wilde

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”

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The Importance of Being Earnest

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i never travel without my diary oscar wilde

Oscar Wilde: 'I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.'

I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.

In his distinct wit, Oscar Wilde famously quipped, "I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying." At first glance, this quote seems to embrace the paradoxical nature of intellectual prowess - a sentiment that is both comical and relatable. Wilde playfully acknowledges that intelligence can sometimes become convoluted, leading to a baffling disconnect between what is spoken and its true comprehension. This statement, albeit humorous, holds deeper implications when examined through the lens of a contrasting philosophical concept: the pursuit of simplicity.Wilde's quote captures the duality of human intellect - the inherent capability to articulate complex ideas while occasionally losing touch with their meaning. It reflects the irony that intelligence can inadvertently lend itself to confusion, leaving individuals "talking the talk" without fully comprehending the essence of their words. This acknowledgment highlights the importance of self-awareness and humility, urging individuals to question their own understanding amidst their cleverness.However, an intriguing philosophical concept emerges when considering the significance of simplicity in the face of intellectual complexity. The pursuit of simplicity suggests that genuine wisdom lies not in convoluted discourse, but in distilling complex ideas into their most accessible form. It challenges the notion that complexity equates to depth, urging us to seek clarity and conciseness in our pursuit of knowledge.While Wilde's quote celebrates the humorous yet relatable aspect of intellectual confusion, the philosophy of simplicity embraces a different perspective. It contends that true intelligence lies in the ability to unravel complexity, to distill intricate thoughts into comprehensible forms that can be shared with others. Embracing this philosophy compels individuals to engage in meticulous introspection, ensuring that their words align with their true understanding.Interestingly, these contrasting perspectives on intellectual expression also expose the importance of effective communication. While Wilde's quote may elicit laughter, it reminds us of the potential pitfalls of miscommunication stemming from the disconnection between one's cleverness and comprehension. On the other hand, the philosophy of simplicity promotes clarity as a means of bridging the gap between ideas and understanding, emphasizing the importance of expressing oneself in a way that is accessible to all.Ultimately, Wilde's quote serves as a candid and humorous reflection on the complexities of human intellect and the potential disconnect between our cleverness and comprehension. It urges us to delve deeper, exploring the contrasting concept of simplicity as an alternative path to genuine understanding and effective communication. By embracing clarity and conciseness, we can ensure that our cleverness does not hinder our ability to grasp the very essence of what we articulate. And in doing so, we truly embody Wilde's wit in a way that encompasses both intellect and wisdom.

Oscar Wilde: 'There is nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It is a thing no married man knows anything about.'

Oscar wilde: 'i never travel without my diary. one should always have something sensational to read in the train.'.

No Sweat Shakespeare

Oscar Wilde Quotes

The page includes 80 of the very best great Oscar Wilde quotes (see our take on the very best Oscar Wilde love quotes here ).

Oscar Wilde was the toast of Victorian London. Not only was he the most popular playwright of West End theatreland, he was also a colourful and flamboyant man-about-London, welcomed everywhere for his amusing speeches and lectures. His novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray , is one of the iconic novels of the late 19th century. His major plays The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windermere’s Fan and An Ideal Husband are regularly performed and new films and television versions appear annually.

Wilde was born in Ireland and located to London in early adulthood, He is often referred to as an English writer and these days he is regarded as a national treasure in both countries. Shakespeare apart, he is, without doubt, the most quoted of writers in the English language. He had a unique mind – one that couldn’t help applying a cynical tongue to just about everything he saw and heard. And always amusing, while being thought-provoking.

Even on his deathbed, he couldn’t help it. As his life was ending in a cheap bed in a rundown French pension the poverty-stricken Wilde, according to friends attending his death, looked around the shabby room, and said: ‘ My wallpaper and I are in a battle to the death, one or the other must go .’

Many of Oscar Wilde’s observations, taken from his writing and his reported conversations and speeches, have become common currency in the modern English language. Such quotes as, ‘ I can resist everything except temptation’ ; ‘ Work is the curse of the drinking class’ ; ‘There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about’ , and the more sober, ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars’ , have become common sayings.

With this in mind, here is our pick of 80 of the very best Oscar Wilde quotes:

“A bore is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.”

Oscar Wilde quote

“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.”

The Picture of Dorian Gray

“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.”

“a good friend will always stab you in the front.”, “a little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.”, “a man’s face is his autobiography. a woman’s face is her work of fiction.”, “a thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”, “all women become like their mothers. that is their tragedy. no man does, and that is his.”.

The Importance of Being Earnest

“Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.”

“america is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.”, “anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success.”, “anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”, “be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”, “behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.”, “education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”, “everything in moderation, including moderation.”, “everything in the world is about sex except sex. sex is about power.”, “experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.”, “humanity takes itself too seriously. it is the world’s original sin. if the cave-man had known how to laugh, history would have been different.”, “i am not young enough to know everything.”, “i am so clever that sometimes i don’t understand a single word of what i am saying.”, “i am too fond of reading books to care to write them.”, “i can resist anything except temptation.”, “i choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects.”, “i don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. i want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.”, “i don’t want to go to heaven. none of my friends are there.”, “i have the simplest tastes. i am always satisfied with the best.”, “i like men who have a future and women who have a past.”, “i may not agree with you, but i will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself.”, “i never travel without my diary. one should always have something sensational to read in the train.”, “if one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”, “if you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.”, “it is absurd to divide people into good and bad. people are either charming or tedious.”, “it is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.”, “it is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”, “it takes great deal of courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it.”, “life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.”.

Lady Windemere’s fan

“Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing.”

“man is least himself when he talks in his own person. give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”, “memory… is the diary that we all carry about with us.”, “morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.”, “most people are other people. their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”, “my own business always bores me to death; i prefer other people’s.”, “nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”, “nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”, “one should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. a woman who would tell one that would tell one anything.”.

A Woman of No Importance

“Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.”

“our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.”, “selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.”, “society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.”, “some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”, “the books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”, “the good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. that is what fiction means.”, “the nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out.”, “the old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.”, “the only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”, “the only good thing to do with good advice is pass it on; it is never of any use to oneself.”, “the public is wonderfully tolerant. it forgives everything except genius.”, “the truth is rarely pure and never simple.”, “the world is a stage and the play is badly cast.”, “there are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.”, “there are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it., “there is no sin except stupidity.”, “there is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. books are well written, or badly written. that is all.”, “there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”, “those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. this is a fault. those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. for these there is hope. they are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty., “to define is to limit.”, “to live is the rarest thing in the world. most people exist, that is all.”, “we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”, “we are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.”, “we live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.”, “whenever people agree with me i always feel i must be wrong.”, “work is the curse of the drinking classes.”, “you can never be overdressed or overeducated.”.

What do you think of all of these Oscar Wilde quotes – any great one’s we’re missing? Let us know in the comments section below!

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Jane-Ann Davies

“You don’t love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.” -Oscar Wilde

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i never travel without my diary oscar wilde

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Oscar Wilde Quote

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.

Gwendolen, Act II. - The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.

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42 Oscar Wilde Quotes on Identity, Inspiration, and Art

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Leah Rachel von Essen

By day, Leah Rachel von Essen is the editor-in-chief of Chicago Booth Magazine at the University of Chicago. By night, she reviews genre-bending fiction for Booklist , and writes regularly as a senior contributor at Book Riot. Her blog While Reading and Walking has over 10,000 dedicated followers over several social media outlets, including Instagram . She writes passionately about books in translation, chronic illness and bias in healthcare, queer books, twisty SFF, and magical realism and folklore. She was one of a select few bookstagrammers named to NewCity’s Chicago Lit50 in 2022. She is an avid traveler, a passionate fan of women’s basketball and soccer, and a lifelong learner. Twitter: @reading_while

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If you don’t already know the Irish playwright and poet, here’s a crash course. You’ve likely seen Oscar Wilde quotes, both misattributed and accurate, all over your Pinterest boards. Wilde’s plays were popular in the 1890s. He incorporated themes of aestheticism, duplicity, and beauty into one of his best-known works and only novel,  The Picture of Dorian Gray . His society comedy plays, including Lady Windermere’s Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest , launched him into popular society, where he was also known for his wit.

Oscar Wilde

Unfortunately, Wilde is also known for the tragic circumstances of his death. England at the time was a swirl of homophobia. The Labouchere Amendment made it possible for England to persecute men for “gross indecency,” or for being homosexual. In 1895, Wilde was charged under this law, and the trial included exchanges in which his literary career and works were used as evidence against him. Wilde was sentenced to hard labor for two years. The highly successful run of The Importance of Being Earnest was brought to an end and his family possessions and house were sold. Wilde died destitute in Paris at the age of 46 despite being a literary genius of his age.

Even during his trial, Wilde’s wit remained as sharp as ever. He is known today for his works, his trials, and for his smart, cutting, or inspirational quotes. While many of the quotes that swirl around are misattributed, most of them are from his works, and put simply, they rule. Here are forty-two Oscar Wilde quotes for your enjoyment.

Oscar Wilde Quotes On imagination and introspection

“When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?” —from De Profundis: The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Writings (1905)

Oscar Wilde quote

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” —from Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892)

“Only the shallow know themselves.” —from “Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young” (1882)

“ Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” —as quoted in Aristotle at Afternoon Tea: The Rare Oscar Wilde (1991)

“ 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.” —from “The Critic as Artist” (1891)

Oscar Wilde Quotes On Books and literature

“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” —from The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

“Oh! it is absurd to have a hard-and-fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn’t. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn’t read.” —from The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

“I hate vulgar realism in literature. The man who would call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one.” —from The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

“The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.” —from The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

“A poet can survive everything but a misprint.” —from “The Children of the Poets” (1886)

On Journaling

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.” —from The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

On the power of words

“To define is to limit.” —from The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

“Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them! They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of viol or of lute. Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?” —from The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

Oscar Wilde Quotes On being an artist

“ An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.” —quoted by Alvin Redman in The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde (1952)

“ No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.” —from “The Decay of Lying” (1889)

“ Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.” —from “The Critic as Artist” (1891)

“ They are always asking a writer why he does not write like somebody else, or a painter why he does not paint like somebody else, quite oblivious of the fact that if either of them did anything of the kind he would cease to be an artist.” —from “The Soul of Man Under Socialism” (1891)

On Happiness

“When we are happy, we are always good, but when we are good, we are not always happy.” —from The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

Oscar Wilde quotes

“With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?” —from  De Profundis: The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Writings (1905, written from imprisonment)

“In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” —from Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892)

Oscar Wilde Quotes On Humanity

“Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world’s original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.” —from The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

“The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes.” —from “The Soul of Man Under Socialism” (1891)

“I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays. You can’t go anywhere without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left.” —from The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

“There is no mode of action, no form of emotion, that we do not share with the lower animals. It is only by language that we rise above them, or above each other—by language, which is the parent, and not the child, of thought.” —from “The Critic as Artist” (1891)

“It seems to me that we all look at Nature too much, and live with her too little.” —from De Profundis: The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Writings (1905)

“I have never met any really wicked person before. I feel rather frightened. I am so afraid he will look just like every one else.” —from The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

“ 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.” —from “The Critic as Artist” (1891)

“Prayer must never be answered: if it is, it ceases to be prayer and becomes correspondence.” —quoted by Alvin Redman in The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde (1952)

On the Past

“He to whom the present is the only thing that is present, knows nothing of the age in which he lives.” —from “Oscariana” (1907)

“The past could always be annihilated. Regret, denial, or forgetfulness could do that. But the future was inevitable.” —from The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

Oscar Wilde Quotes About Life

“Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing.” —from The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

“ One can survive everything nowadays except death.” —from “Oscariana” (1907)

Oscar Wilde quote

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist. That is all.” —from “ The Soul of Man Under Socialism” (1891)

“ It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.” —from  The Model Millionaire  (1912)

“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.” —from “The Portrait of Mr. W-H” (1889)

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” —from The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

On INFLUENCing others

“There is no such thing as a good influence. Because to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such thing as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else’s music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him.” —from The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” —from “The Soul of Man Under Socialism” (1891)

“ A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” —from “The Soul of Man Under Socialism” (1891)

“God knows; I won’t be an Oxford don anyhow. I’ll be a poet, a writer, a dramatist. Somehow or other I’ll be famous, and if not famous, I’ll be notorious. Or perhaps I’ll lead the life of pleasure for a time and then—who knows?—rest and do nothing. What does Plato say is the highest end that man can attain here below? To sit down and contemplate the good. Perhaps that will be the end of me too.” —quoted in “In Victorian Days and other papers” by Sir David Oswald Hunter-Blair (1939)

On Love and friendship

“Friendship is far more tragic than love. It lasts longer.” —from “A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated” (1894)

“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.” —quoted by Alvin Redman in The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde (1952)

See more Oscar Wilde quotes at this round-up (because there are always more excellent Wilde quotes), and check out other quote round-ups from your favorite authors .

i never travel without my diary oscar wilde

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Oscar Wilde Quotes That Will Change How You Travel: 'Be Afraid of Nothing'

Oscar Wilde was a theatrical Irish writer whose work was venerated in London in the 1890s. Wilde married in 1884 and had two children, but was sentenced to two years in jail after being found guilty of “homosexual misconduct,” a criminal offense at the time. Those who praised him and his work loved him for his wit; when he arrived in New York City after committing to lecturing in the U.S., for example, he said he had “nothing to declare but his genius.”

Related: These Jack Kerouac Quotes Will Convince You to Get 'On the Road' and Leave It All Behind

An eccentric rule-bender, Wilde embodied the movement known as aestheticism, which encouraged people to live for the sake of art, or to do art for art’s sake. He gained a bit of a following with this philosophy. The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible," he wrote in “Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young.”

Related: 31 Mark Twain Quotes About Travel and the World As He Saw It

His plays were subversive and clever, filled with irreverent social commentary that challenged the status quo in ways that delighted some people, but shocked others. He lived his life in ways that were true to himself rather than adhering to societal norms, and much of his writing reflects this. Below are just a few excerpts that might inspire being true to oneself, in both travel and adventure.

Related: Robert Frost Quotes That Will Inspire You to Travel 'The Road Not Taken'

“Travel improves the mind wonderfully, and does away with all one’s prejudices.” ? Oscar Wilde, “The Happy Prince and Other Tales”

“Any place you love is the world to you.” — Oscar Wilde, “The Happy Prince”

“No better way is there to learn to love Nature than to understand Art. It dignifies every flower of the field. And, the boy who sees the thing of beauty which a bird on the wing becomes when transferred to wood or canvas will probably not throw the customary stone.” — Oscar Wilde, “Essays and Lectures”

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” — Oscar Wilde, “The Soul of Man Under Socialism”

“Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing.” — Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.” — Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest”

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"Controversies in Medicine and Neuroscience: Through the Prism of History, Neurobiology, and Bioethics (2023) is well worth reading and studying. It should be standard on all doctor’s bookshelves and among the interested laymen."

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Literature and Sensation

Literature and Sensation

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“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train” (Oscar Wilde). Literature has always treated the sensational: crime, passion, violence, trauma, catastrophe. It has frequently caused, or been at the centre of scandal, censorship and moral outrage. But literature is also intricately connected with sensation in ways that are less well understood. It mediates between the sensory world, perception and cognition through rich modes of thought allied with perceptions and emotions and makes sense of profound questions that transcend the merely rational. And at its boundaries, literature engages with the uncanny realm in which knowledge, presentiment or feeling is prior to articulation in words.

This book reviews the sensational dimension of literature according to themes that have too often been left to one side. Literary theory has often privileged perception over sensation, cognition over raw experience, in focusing on semantics rather than sense. The essays in this volume cover literature and sensation in all its facets, drawing upon a range of approaches from evolutionary theory, theories of mind, perception, philosophy and aesthetics. The works considered are drawn from various literary periods and genres, from the nineteenth century to contemporary prose and poetry, including experiments in new media.

Literature and Sensation offers detailed and subtle readings of literature according to the sensations they represent, incite, or evoke in us, and will be of interest to readers of literary theory, ethics and aesthetics, and theorists of new media art.

Anthony Uhlmann is Associate Professor in the School of Humanities and Languages, University of Western Sydney. He is the author of Beckett and Poststructuralism (Cambridge UP) and Samuel Beckett and the Philosophical Image (Cambridge UP, 2006). His most recent project examines Modernist Aesthetics. Helen Groth is a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University. She is currently completing a monograph titled Optical Illusion and the Victorian Cultural Imagination and is the author of Victorian Photography and Literary Nostalgia. Paul Sheehan is a Senior Lecturer in the English Department at Macquarie University, the author of Modernism, Narrative and Humanism (Cambridge, 2002) and the editor of Becoming Human: New Perspectives on the Inhuman Condition (Praeger, 2003); presently he is finishing a study of violence and aesthetics in literature and the cinema over the last hundred years. Stephen McLaren is a writer and academic with research interests in the writing process, satire and imagination. He has published three textbooks on writing, and his study of the compositional development of James Joyce’s first novel, Reframing A Portrait: Joyce’s Evolution in Design is forthcoming from Sussex Academic Press in 2009.

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i never travel without my diary oscar wilde

ISBN: 1-4438-0116-X

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Release Date: 27th February 2009

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Oscar Wilde quote about self-love from The Importance of Being Earnest - I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.

“ I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. ”   Oscar Wilde , The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) . copy citation

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Oscar Wilde quote about self-love from The Importance of Being Earnest - I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.

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WHAT TRAVELERS DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT

By deseret news , susanne hopkins, los angeles daily news.

"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train."

- Oscar WildeThere are some things one simply cannot leave home without.

For Oscar Wilde, it was a sensational diary; for the more pedestrian types among us, it could be a Swiss army knife, a lucky charm or a blankie.

Whatever, every traveler has something he or she always packs, whether it be for security, safety or simply because it might not be available in Outer Mongolia or Sioux City, Iowa.

(Years ago, I was in a London department store when a clerk overheard my accent and asked where I was from in the United States. Just outside Los Angeles, I responded.

"Oh, I'm going there!" she said excitedly. She and her husband, she said, had saved for years to visit the city where her sister now lived. Then, her voice dropped and with some hesitation, she asked a question which, she said, she just could not bring herself to ask of her sister.

"Could you tell me," she asked shyly, "do they have talcum powder in America?"

You just never know what that foreign place will have, do you?)

Believing that our readers would have some worthy tips on what is essential, we asked them to share their travel musts (aside, of course, from clothes, tickets and toothbrush). And, boy, did we get some surprises!

Did people write to us about the benefits of water purifiers or the virtues of bombproof eyeglass cases or crushable hats? Hardly. Most people, it seems, have more basic needs. We heard a lot about portable coffee pots, night lights, neck pillows and that favorite teddy bear. Several people also said they carry spiritual books, such as the Bible, and inspirational tapes.

Here's what else readers told us they could not leave home without:

- "Regardless of where we go, Scandinavia, Alaska or through the Panama Canal this year, we always take, couldn't live without six gallon-sized freezer bags (and) six quart-sized freezer bags," write Loren and Lorraine Switzer of North Hollywood.

"The plastic bags are great for keeping things together; keeping gown, slippers, small robe together on top of suitcase; dropping in the gifts you pick up along the way; packing underwear and personal things; jewelry; plastic bottles that might spill."

- "The one thing that's always in my suitcase is a corkscrew - don't leave home without it," says Dave Johnston of Simi Valley.

- "I always carry a small jar of peanut butter in my suitcase," says Jean Russell of Tujunga. "No matter where you travel in the world, you can always get crackers or bread, but in foreign travel, you will not find peanut butter."

- And also on the snack side, "Small bags of Fritos," writes Jayne Barnhart of North Hollywood. "I learned many years ago that not only are they good for munching on in foreign countries, but they can become breakfast, lunch or dinner. ... Once, when I was on a bus tour of Greece, we had an early morn trip to the Acropolis and I had missed breakfast, so grabbed some of my handy-dandy bags of Fritos and ate them on the way."

- And in the sports category, "I never leave home without ...my rugby boots!" writes Nolan Day of Los Angeles. "I've been able to pick up matches in 26 countries to date and have met the most interesting people of my life this way."

- Mary Stermer of Temple City focuses on safety items. "The one thing that I would not go traveling without is my pepper spray." She also packs a Kubato key chain, whistle, flashlight - and a 7-inch barking dog.

- Carolyn Noble of North Hollywood says she always takes "my trusty yellow foam earplugs. ... Getting a good night's sleep makes all the difference in having the energy ... to see all the sights."

- Nancy Mandelbaum always carries her bathing suit - in her purse. "One time, many years ago, I went to Nassau in the Bahamas, but my luggage went to the island of Eleuthera. I was in my New York City clothes for a day - hot and grumpy. A woman just can't go and buy a bathing suit on a moment's notice. It takes a long time to find the perfect one."

- Janet Ballin of Canyon Country says she always takes a tin of Swiss Mocha coffee - and 40 $1 bills. "These are essential. If you want to purchase a small item in a foreign country and only have $20, your change will all be in that currency. With ones, you can eliminate this problem. Also good for tips and for headsets or cocktails on aircraft where they never seem to have change. But I never leave home without my Swiss Mocha."

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  3. Oscar Wilde Quote: “I never travel without my diary. One should always

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COMMENTS

  1. Quote by Oscar Wilde: "I never travel without my diary. One should alw..."

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  2. Oscar Wilde: 'I never travel without my diary. One should always have

    The quote by Oscar Wilde, 'I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train,' is a simple yet profound statement about the role of literature in our lives. At first glance, it suggests that carrying a diary while traveling is a means to have something entertaining to read during the journey.

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    In his distinct wit, Oscar Wilde famously quipped, "I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying." At first glance, this quote seems to embrace the paradoxical natur ... Oscar Wilde: 'I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.' Music

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    A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. It is better to travel well than to arrive. Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit. All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. "I never travel without my diary. One should..." - Oscar Wilde quotes from BrainyQuote.com.

  6. Oscar Wilde Quotes: 80 Witty & Insightful Oscar Wilde Quotes

    Oscar Wilde quote "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train." Oscar Wilde quote "If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all." Oscar Wilde quote "If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you."

  7. 15 Oscar Wilde Quotes About Reading, Writing, and Books

    I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily.

  8. Themes in The Importance of Being Earnest

    She tells Cecily, "I never travel without my diary. One should have something sensational to read in the train." Wilde seems to be taking to task a social class that thinks only of itself, showing little compassion or sympathy for the trials of those less fortunate. Religion. Another serious subject — religion — is also a topic of satire.

  9. Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest

    Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest 2. SECOND ACT (continued) CECILY. Oh, but it is not Mr. Ernest Worthing who is my guardian. ... [Produces diary of her own.] I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. I am so sorry, dear Cecily, if it is any disappointment to you, but I am ...

  10. The Importance of Being Earnest

    "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train." ― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest. Crafted at the height of his powers, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is a brilliantly written three act drama rife with witty jokes and ingenious one-liners which still feel as fresh and insightful today as when they were first ...

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    Oscar Wilde quote: I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. ... Oscar Wilde. Creative Commons. Born: October 16, 1854. Died: November 30, 1900 (aged 46) Oscar Wilde Quotes. Featured Authors. Lists. Predictions that didn't happen.

  12. I never travel without my diary. One should...... Quote by "Oscar Wilde

    If you never know what you want to be, if you live what some might call the dynamic life but what I will call the artistic life, if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know you will never become anything, and that is your reward. — Oscar Wilde

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    Oscar Wilde, Irish wit, poet, and dramatist who was a spokesman for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement that advocated art for art's sake. ... I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.

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  15. 42 Oscar Wilde Quotes on Identity, Inspiration, and Art

    Oscar Wilde Quotes On imagination and introspection "When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens, there still remains oneself. ... "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train." —from The Importance of Being ...

  16. I never travel without my Diary

    Welcome to our channel, where we explore the lives of influential figures from the past. In this video, we delve into the captivating world of Oscar Wilde, a...

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    Nov 10, 2016. 'I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.'. — Oscar Wilde. I do, however, frequently travel without my diary. It is a ...

  19. Literature and Sensation

    "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train" (Oscar Wilde). Literature has always treated the sensational: crime, passion, violence, trauma, catastrophe. It has frequently caused, or been at the centre of scandal, censorship and moral outrage. But literature is also intricately ...

  20. The Importance of Being Earnest: Gwendolen Fairfax Quotes

    Ernest proposed to me exactly ten minutes ago. [Shows diary.] GWENDOLEN [Examines diary through her lorgnettte carefully]. It is certainly very curious, for he asked me to be his wife yesterday afternoon at 5.30. If you would care to verify the incident, pray do so. [Produces diary of her own.] I never travel without my diary.

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    Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). copy citation. edit. Author: Oscar Wilde: Source: The Importance of Being Earnest: Topic: self-love reading diary narcissism: ... I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. I am so sorry, dear Cecily, if it is any disappointment to you ...

  22. "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something

    Rossi: "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train." -- Oscar Wilde

  23. WHAT TRAVELERS DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT

    "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train." - Oscar WildeThere are some things one simply cannot leave home without. For Oscar Wilde, it was a sensational diary; for the more pedestrian types among us, it could be a Swiss army knife, a lucky charm or a blankie.