Today’s quote comes from Oscar Wilde (October 16, 1854 – November 30, 1900) who was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet, and became one of London’s most popular playwrights in the early 1890s and one of the best-known personalities of his day. He is perhaps best known for his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his various plays, including The Importance of Being Earnest, biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversation.

He was also known for being famously arrested, tried and convicted of gross indecency with men after failing to answer the question “What is the love that dare not speak its name?” correctly, and was subsequently imprisoned for two year’s hard labor, which consisted of walking on a treadmill and picking oakum (separating the fibers in scraps of old navy ropes). Wilde died destitute in Paris of cerebral meningitis at the ripe old age of 46, which may or may not have been caused by syphilis, or an ear injury sustained during his prison term.

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