To be kind was why he flattered — but woe to any fool who accepted the flattery.

He left behind, as his essential contribution to literature, a large repertoire of jokes which survive because of their sheer neatness, and because of a certain intriguing uncertainty — which extends to Wilde himself — as to whether they really mean anything.

If, with the literate, I am
Impelled to try an epigram,
I never seek to take the credit;
We all assume that Oscar said it.