名言集#13 Oscar Wilde

英語が身近になればなるほど英語が好きな人が増えるのではないかと思い、
私が好きな English Quotes や English Phrases を紹介することにしました。
こちらは My Favorite English Quotes (私が好きな英語の名言集)です。 

13人目は Oscar Wilde さん。
どんな人？

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde[a] (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.

Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German.

…He tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art" and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day.

Oscar Wilde | Wikipedia

Oscar Wildeさんは時代の先を行っていた人。
セレブらしい注目のされ方と騒がせ方。
捕まったのはまずかったけど、それさえ制作のネタにしてる。
今生きてたらどんな作品を作るだろう、と思う。
生きてたら会ってみたい人の1人。同じ時代にいないのが残念。

“To define is to limit.”

定義してしまうと制限をかけてしまう事。
何か言ってしまうと、それに縛られてしまう。
ジャンルを決めずに何でも書く、あの感じ。
自由でいることが、決めない事が、選ばない事が自由さを作る。
自分のことだとしたら？
自分が何か決めたらそれ以外のものになれない。
何ができるのか何をしないのか、枠から出られなくなったらその枠が自分で作ったリミット。

“I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.”

感情に翻弄されたくない。それを使いたい、楽しみたい、支配したい。
それができたら苦労しない。
情熱的な人だったのだろうと思う。
感情に流されたくないといいつつ、そうだからこそ書けるものがある。
そんな彼の人間らしさはいい。そうあってもいい、そんなもの。
どれくらいクールでいられるかは人類の課題なのかもしれない。

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

敵を絶対に許す。許す事ほど彼らを苛立たせるものはない。
あ～努力の末にやっと、ですかね。
だってこの気持ちの塊、行き場がないと思いがち。
解決方法はある。
「それ」に時間と考えを費やさない事。
気持ちは温度の上下があるので、これは仕方がない。
でも何を考えるのか何に時間を費やすのかは選べる。選ぶ。
時間が経つと要らないことに費やす時間と感情の起伏は少なくなる。する。

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”
旅行には必ず自分の日記を持っていく。電車で読める何か扇情的なものをもっていくべき。
笑った。
もし自分の日記・過去を読み返すとしたら、どの部分を読み返す？
noteを書いている皆様には　読み返せるネタが　書いた記事の数　ある。

Oscar Wildeさんを好きな理由は笑わせてくれるから。
そう言いますか、と思って声に出して笑ってしまう。
にやにやするのではなくて、笑っちゃう。
考えさせられる心に刺さる彼の言葉はどれも味がある。
他にも彼の良い名言がたくさんあります。
今日良いなと思ったものをここにリストしました。

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”
“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.”
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”
“I don't want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there.”
“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”
“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.”
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
“Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”
“Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary.”
“Hearts are made to be broken.”
“I can resist anything except temptation.”
“You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.”
“I am not young enough to know everything.”
“Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.”
“A good friend will always stab you in the front.”
“You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.”
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
“You can never be overdressed or overeducated.”
“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
“We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.”
“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.”
“Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.”
“Some things are more precious because they don't last long.”
“I like men who have a future and women who have a past.”
“Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.”