Did Oscar Wilde write: “Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much”?

On the Web and various books, you can often find a quote attributed to the famous Irish writer. We checked the correctness of such an attribution.

Another option for translating the phrase - "Farewell to your enemies is the best way to get them out of yourself."

In Russian, a statement signed by Wilde can be found in various online gatherings of aphorisms ("Quotes of famous personalities" “Quotes.info", "Pearls of thought" Socratify.net), magazine "Rules of life" Some modern booksas well as in social networks: Facebook, "VKontakte" And Telegram.

There are a great many quotes about the forgiveness of enemies: on This topic Alexander Herzen, Henry Heine, Francis Bacon and other famous figures-each in his own way. Many discussions on this issue go back to one of the basic ideas of Christianity - forgiveness. For example, Oscar Wilde in his "Notes from the Reding prison" Reasoning About one of Jesus’s statements: “When he says:“ Farewell to your enemies, ”he says this is not for the sake of the enemy, but for the sake of ourselves and because love is more beautiful than hatred.” However, this phrase does not correspond to the dispensed quote either in meaning or in context.

In the original, the phrase attributed to Wilde sounds like this: "Always Forgive Your Enemies; Nothing Annoys Them So Much." She is enough Popular online.

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) left behind a rich literary heritage. "Verified" studied the multi -volume works of the writer who published at the beginning of the 20th century in publishers Keller-Farmer Co., The Nottingham Society And Wyman-Fogg Co.different biographies writer, publications on sites Society Oscar Wilde, Oscar Wilde Online, electronic archive Trinity College In Dublin, an digitized collection of Wilde's letters and manuscripts on the site Library and Museum Morgan (USA) and a number of other authoritative sources. There are no traces of the desired phrase in them. There is no it in the famous book Researcher Ralph Kiz “Oscar Wilde’s wisdom and wisdom”, containing a large number of Irishm's aphorisms.

Search by books and periodicals on project sites Internet Archive And "Google Books"Shows that the massive spread of aphorism with attributing his authorship Oscar Wilde began in 1954, when several English -language newspapers and magazines in the USA and India were printed at once. In the earliest references, newspapers refer to the publication in the popular Reader’s Digest magazine.

Researchers from the Quote Investigator project, discovered In the Reader’s Digest issue of the Oscar Wilde, the Reader’s Digest number, notes that there were no references to the phrase source, and in general in those years they often posted quotes sent by readers that were not checked for accuracy and often contained errors.

Previously, May 1954, the dispensed quote is not literally found in the sources with either the attribution of Wilde, or without the mention of the author. The closest to it - with the exact word - the phrase "Always Forgive Your Enemies. Nothing Annoys Them So Intense "can be found in the number of the British newspaper The Sketch dated April 13, 1949. Coming instructions for youth were printed there for the authorship of the writer Percy Colson, for example, such: “Only very stupid people love draws”, “where there is universal equality, there can be no quality” and “always goodbye your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much. ”

Percy Colson is not a random person in the context of studying Wilde's heritage. He was the co -author of the book "Oscar Wilde and Black Douglas”, Published in the same 1949 and told about the writer and his lover, the Marquise of Kuinsbury, the second author of the book. The upcoming output of the biographical study was reported in the same newspaper The Sketch, and this possibly confused one of the readers, who several years later sent a quote to the Reader’s Digest editor. At the same time, Kolson was definitely not the first to whom the idea of ​​aphorism came up about the forgiveness of enemies. So, in the story of Felix Grandon "Cold philosopher", Printed in the New York magazine The International in 1911, the hero declares:" I always forgive my enemies, nothing brings them to rage stronger. " 11 years later Grandon Repeated This quote in the novel "Race for Love."

Thus, Oscar Wilde has nothing to do with the viral quote about the forgiveness of enemies. The writer Felix Grenon used the phrase quite close in meaning after his death. Wilde began to attribute a quote to Wilde after the publication in Reader’s Digest, which, apparently, was based on the phrase of Persia Collson, one of Wilde's biographers.

Photo on the cover: Wikimedia Commons

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Did Oscar Wilde say: “The only thing that is good in England is what is taken from other countries”?
2. Did Oscar Wilde say: “Everything that is beautiful in this life is either immoral, or illegally, or leads to obesity”?
3. Did Mark Twain say: “Moderation should be in everything, including moderation”?