Oscar Wilde? Henry Wotton? Sibyl Vane? Louis T. Stanley? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: The famous wit Oscar Wilde has received credit for the following cynical dialogue, but I am not sure where it appeared:
“Young people, nowadays, imagine that money is everything.”
“Yes, and when they grow older they know it.”
Oscar Wilde has also received credit for the following quotation which has a very similar meaning:
When I was young I used to think that money was the most important thing in life. Now that I am old, I know it is.
I have become skeptical of these attributions. Are either of these quotations authentic? Did Oscar Wilde repeat the same joke? Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Oscar Wilde published the novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” in 1891. During a scene in chapter three the jaded and hedonistic character Lord Wotton (Henry Wotton) met with his uncle Lord Fermor (George Fermor) and discussed money. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
“Money, I suppose,” said Lord Fermor, making a wry face. “Well, sit down and tell me all about it. Young people, nowadays, imagine that money is everything.”
“Yes,” murmured Lord Henry, settling his buttonhole in his coat; “and when they grow older they know it. But I don’t want money. It is only people who pay their bills who want that, Uncle George, and I never pay mine.”
Thus, Oscar Wilde should be credited with this dialogue; however, the acerbic rejoinder was spoken by a fictional character and not by Wilde himself.
QI conjectures that the second quotation in the inquiry was not written or spoken by Oscar Wilde; instead, it was derived from the first quotation via a faulty memory. Wilde died in 1900, and the earliest close match for the second quotation found by QI appeared in 1945.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In February 1891 Oscar Wilde published the essay “The Soul of Man Under Socialism” in “The Fortnightly Review” of London. Wilde wrote about money and poverty:2
There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else. That is the misery of being poor.
Also, in 1891 Wilde published “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. The characters in the novel displayed divergent attitudes toward money. For example, the actress Sibyl Vane replied to her mother by stating emphatically that she valued love more highly than money:3
… “I am only happy, Sibyl, when I see you act. You must not think of anything but your acting. Mr. Isaacs has been very good to us, and we owe him money.”
The girl looked up and pouted. “Money, mother?” she cried, “what does money matter? Love is more than money.”
“The Picture of Dorian Gray” also contained the following exchange between Lord Fermor and Lord Wotton as mentioned previously:
“Well, sit down and tell me all about it. Young people, nowadays, imagine that money is everything.”
“Yes,” murmured Lord Henry, settling his buttonhole in his coat; “and when they grow older they know it.”
In 1907 Leonard Cresswell Ingleby published a biography of Oscar Wilde. Ingleby praised Wilde’s novel by stating that “the dialogue throughout the tale sparkles with brilliant epigrams”. Ingleby printed a condensed version of the dialogue:4
Nothing could be more felicitous than “young people imagine that money is everything . . . and when they grow older they know it”; and, “to be good is to be in harmony with oneself.”
In 1945 Louis T. Stanley published the essay “The Ruination of Golf” in “The Field” magazine of Bath, England. Stanley attributed the second quotation to Oscar Wilde, but he did not provide a supporting reference:5
The text of this essay is “Money.” Few deny its usefulness, many condemn its uses. According to Mr. George Bernard Shaw, “Money is the most important thing in the world.” According to St. Paul, the love of this same commodity is the root of all evil. Mr. Oscar Wilde declared, “When I was young I used to think that money was the most important thing in life. Now that I am old, I know it is.”
In 1947 “The New York Times” published a collection of quotations about money which had been compiled by Frances Rodman. The collection included the following three items:6
“Never spend your money until you have it, and never buy anything you don’t want because it is cheap.” — Thomas Jefferson.
“It is pretty to see what money will do.” — Samuel Pepys.
“When I was young I used to think that money was the most important thing in life. Now that I am old, I know it is.” — Oscar Wilde
In 1949 Evan Esar edited and published “The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations” which included the following two items:7
WILDE, Oscar, 1856-1900, British wit, poet, and dramatist.
When I was young I used to think that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old, I know it is.
When people agree with me I always feel that I must be wrong.
Also, in 1949 Louis T. Stanley published “Fresh Fairways” which reprinted his essay titled “The Ruination of Golf” which contained the second quotation.8
In 1967 syndicated columnist Larry Wolters of the “Chicago Tribune” printed a set of quotations attributed to Oscar Wilde which included the following three items:9
“Vulgarity is simply the conduct of others.”
“When I was young I used to think that money was the most important thing in life; now, that I am old, I know it is”
“The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.”
In conclusion, Oscar Wilde deserves credit for the dialogue between Lord Fermor and Lord Wotton in the 1891 novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. QI hypothesizes that this dialogue was rewritten to generate the quotation which was incorrectly attributed to Oscar Wilde in 1945.
Image Notes: Illustration of gold ingots from Stevebidmead at Pixabay. Image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Paul Mantyla whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1891, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Chapter 3, Quote Page 47 and 48, Ward, Lock & Company, London. (Google Books Full View) (The book version of the tale was changed; QI was unable to find the quotation in the original serialized story in “Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine”) link ↩︎
- 1891 February, The Fortnightly Review, The Soul of Man Under Socialism by Oscar Wilde, Start Page 292, Quote Page 299, Chapman and Hall, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1891, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Chapter 5, Quote Page 88, Ward, Lock & Company, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1907, Oscar Wilde by Leonard Cresswell Ingleby, Part 6: The Fiction Writer, Chapter: Fiction, Quote Page 317 and 318, T. Werner Laurie, London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1945 September 29, The Field, Volume 186, Issue 4840, The Ruination of Golf by Louis T. Stanley, Quote Page 329, Future Publishing Ltd, Bath, England. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1947 March 2, New York Times, Section: The New York Times Magazine, Root of Good or Evil, Compiled by Frances Rodman, Quote Page 2, Column 4, New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1949 Copyright, The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations, Compiled by Evan Esar, Section: Oscar Wilde, Quote Page 224, Bramhall House, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1949, Fresh Fairways by Louis T. Stanley, Chapter 4: The Ruination of Golf, Start Page 16, Quote Page 16, Methuen & Company Ltd., London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1967 September 24, Chicago Tribune, Larry Wolters’: Gag Bag, Quote Page H10, Column 2, Chicago, Illinois. (ProQuest) ↩︎