Oscar Wilde In America

QUOTATION: Whatever is false will vanish; whatever is permanent will remain. I am patient, and I can wait.

WHERE IT WAS SAID

At the Lotos Club in New York City on October 28, 1882, during an after-dinner speech on the occasion of one of the club’s “State Dinners”—the guests of honor on this occasion being Charles Wyndham and Bronson Howard.

WHERE IT APPEARED

“Oscar Wilde: A Certain After-Dinner Speech”, New-York Tribune, November 5, 1882, 3.

COMMENTARY

Wilde’s audience was largely made up of writers and members of the press. So following their year-long ridicule of Oscar, and rudeness to him on the night (coughing him down), these concluding remarks by the 28 year old Wilde cautioning the one hundred and fifty members present, can be seen as a spirited and prophetic act of self-determinism.

For a full analysis of the evening and the remark, see the blog article linked below.

Related:

I Can Wait.

The Lotos Club

149 Fifth Avenue at 21st Street, New York, NY