The Most Often Quoted ?

Oh, Gus, Wilde was going to be my next post. (your Avatar scares me too)

Letty: I hope you don't mind a few more quotes posted here.

Oscar Wilde:

Anything approaching to the free play of the mind is practically unknown amongst us. People cry out against the sinner, yet it is not the sinful, but the stupid, who are our shame. 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.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Actors are so fortunate. They can choose whether they will appear in tragedy or in comedy, whether they will suffer or make merry, laugh or shed tears. But in real life it is different. Most men and women are forced to perform parts for which they have no qualifications. The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.

and one I've not seen before. I like it:

Beauty is a form of genius --is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon.

Raggedy, those quotes by Wilde are so captivating. He certainly had the courage of his own convictions, didn't he. His quote about books reminds me of what George Burns said:

If a joke is dirty and it's funny--that's a good joke
If a joke is not dirty and it's funny--that's a good joke.
If a joke is clean and not funny-- that's a bad joke
If a joke is dirty and not funny--that's a bad joke

(sorta paraphrased that one)

Well done, Letty. Oh, here's one from a much quoted guy:

Will Rogers: Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else.
and
Charlie Chaplin - I remain just one thing and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.
and
Dorothy Parker: Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.

But, once again, I'm straying from the original subject and respectfully bow out to let you continue with your original interesting topic.

Not to forget Dickens, Tom Paine, Fairy Tales (Once upon a time..... And they lived happily ever after), Lincoln, M L King.