In 100 years time, how many people will still be quoting you? Okay so, we didn't mean to make you feel inadequate but chances are, the number will be smaller than one.
A hearty round of applause then for Oscar Wilde whose death in 1900 hasn't prevented his wonderful words from living a long and fruitful life.
We've gathered together his 20 greatest pieces of wisdom right here. Let us know if we've missed off your favourite.
“I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”
“To be great is to be misunderstood.”
“My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.”
“To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.”
“Everything in moderation, including moderation.”
“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
“I don’t want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there.”
“Talent borrows, genius steals.”
“Life is too important to be taken seriously.”
"Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected."
“Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.”
“I have nothing to declare except my genius.”
“There is only one thing worse than being talked about and that is not being talked about.”
“I was very much disappointed in the Atlantic Ocean. It was very tame. I expected to have it roar about and be beautiful in its storms. I was disappointed in it.”
“Niagara Falls seemed to me to be simply a vast, unnecessary amount of water going the wrong way.”
“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”
“When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.”
“Experience is simply the name we give to our mistakes.”
“The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.”
“In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.”
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(Image: Rex Features)
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