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

The grave of Oscar Wilde is covered in lipstick kisses, left there by his admirers, maybe not so much admirers of his writings but maybe more of his wit and daring lifestyle. A literary hero and martyr to some, Wilde embodies what we might call the original rebel – the wild one – the one who speaks to the public on his own terms.

Wilde took on the drab Victorians by dressing in a flamboyant theatrical style that he designed himself. His wardrobe was not made by London’s tailors, but by the dressers from the local theaters. His flamboyant style did not stop with his clothing either, as he took on the Victorian hypocrisy by saying what he thought and observed, and promoted Aestheticism – the idea of creating art for art’s sake – which is a controversial topic to this day.

He is probably best known for the story of The Picture of Dorian Gray and his plays The Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde’s insightful, witty, one-liners have been turned into party favors that are repeated probably most often on web sites like this and at dinner parties around 2am. Many of his most famous quotations and observations are about men’s relationships with women, a subject on which Wilde had a unique perspective, being that he was married and gay – well, at least bisexual.

A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her. — Oscar Wilde

Born in Ireland on October 16, 1854 as Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde. He died in a Paris Hotel under the assumed alias of Sebastian Melmoth, a character from one of his works, on November 30, 1900, of meningitis.

One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation. — Oscar Wilde