The most disappointing thing for me is that the title quote is not anywhere in the book! How funny!

This is a nice little book of quotations by Oscar Wilde, many that come directly from his works. As a book of quotations, you can't really read it cover to cover in one sitting; it's something you need to pick up and read a few pages of and then set down again.

Did I like it, well, yes as far as a book of quotes goes. I went through and tabbed a number of my favorites. It's funny that as I look at it now, most of the tabs are in the first half of the book - and as the book is generally organized in the order of when the author said the quote or when the work was published, I guess you can say that I wasn't really enjoying Oscar's later works and thoughts as much.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"The supreme object of live is to live. Few people live. It is true life only to realize one's own perfection, to make one's every dream a reality."

"...nothing is worth doing except what the world says is impossible."

"...English people are far more interested in American barbarism than they are in American civilization."

"In America the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience...it may be truly said that no American child is ever blind to the deficiencies of its parents, no matter how much it may love them."

"There is no such thing as a stupid American. Many Americans are horrid, vulgar, intrusive and impertinent, just as many English people are also; but stupidity is not one of the national vices. Indeed, in America there is no opening for a fool. They expect brains from a boot-black, and get them."

"America has never quite forgiven Europe for having been discovered somewhat earlier in history than itself."

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

"Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world, and people die of it just as they die of any other disease. Fortunately, in England at any rate, thought is not catching."

"High hopes were once formed of democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people."

"The aim of love is to love: no more, and no less."

A good outcome of this book has been an increased desire to read more of Wilde's works; besides The Picture of Dorian Gray, I haven't read anything else, and I'm definitely more interested now. So, a good book. ( )