Oscar Wilde? Charles Caleb Colton? Herbert Beerbohm Tree? Punch Magazine? Dublin Monthly Magazine? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Words and deeds are imitated when they are deemed useful, popular, or admirable. However, a simulacrum is inferior when compared to the original. A wit once said:
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.
This statement has been attributed to the famous Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde, but I have not seen a citation, and I am skeptical. Would you please trace this saying?
Reply from Quote Investigator: QI has found no substantive evidence that Oscar Wilde wrote or spoke this precise statement. Yet, there is testimony that Wilde employed thematically related remarks.
In 1882 Wilde attended a performance of the comic opera “Patience” by Arthur Sullivan and W. S. Gilbert. The main character Reginald Bunthorne was widely considered to be a satirical depiction of Wilde. “The Boston Daily Globe” of Massachustts reported Wilde’s reaction to the colorful character:1
When Bunthorne walked on the stage, with his affected stride, Wilde said to Miss Gabrielle Greeley, who was one of the party in the box: “That is the homage which mediocrity pays to that which is not mediocre.”
Also, in 1882 “The New York Times” reported that Oscar Wilde delivered a lecture on the “English Renaissance” which included the following:2
“The pre-Raphaelites were a number of young poets and painters who banded together in London about 30 years since to revolutionize English poetry and painting. They had three things which the English public never forgive—youth, power, and enthusiasm.”
At this point the lecture was loudly applauded. Mr. Wilde continued: “Satire paid them the homage which mediocrity pays to genius. Their detractors blinded the public, but simply confirmed the artists in their convictions. To disagree with three-fourths of all England on all points is one of the first elements of sanity.”
Wilde’s remarks were members of a family of evolving statements with a long history. The 1842 citation below is a match for the statement in the inquiry which uses “plagiarism” instead of “imitation” and “homage” instead of “flattery”. Here is an overview with dates:
1714: Imitation is a kind of artless flattery. (The Spectator, London)
1820: Imitation is the sincerest of flattery. (Charles Caleb Colton in his book Lacon: or, Many Things In Few Words)
1842: Plagiarism is the homage that mediocrity pays to genius. (The Dublin Monthly Magazine of Ireland)
1851: Imitation is the homage which mediocrity pays to superiority. (Punch, London)
1854: Imitation is the homage that dulness pays to wit. (Punch, London)
1854: Oscar Wilde was born in October 1854.
1857: Imitation is but the sincerest form of flattery! (Punch, London)
1859: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. (The Photographic News, London)
1859: Envy is the homage which mediocrity pays to greatness. (The Edinburgh News of Scotland)
1862: Imitation is the homage that dulness pays to genius. (Punch, London)
1874: Imitation is the highest compliment mediocrity pays to genius. (The Huddersfield Examiner of England)
1879: Imitation is the flattery which mediocrity pays to genius. (Muscatine Weekly Journal of Iowa)
1879: Envy is the tribute which mediocrity pays to greatness. (The Freeman’s Journal of Dublin, Ireland)
1882: That is the homage which mediocrity pays to that which is not mediocre. (Attributed to Oscar Wilde in The Boston Daily Globe of Massachusetts. Wilde was referring to the character Bunthorne)
1882: This is one of the compliments that mediocrity pay to those that are not mediocre. (Attributed to Oscar Wilde in The Brooklyn Daily Times of New York. Wilde was referring to the character Bunthorne)
1882: Satire paid them the homage which mediocrity pays to genius. (Spoken by Oscar Wilde during a lecture reported in The New York Times. Wilde was referring to the pre-Raphaelites)
1882: Caricaturing is “the compliment which mediocrity pays to superiority” (Attributed to Oscar Wilde in The Daily Inter Ocean of Chicago, Illinois)
1884: Imitation is the sincerest form of insult. (Attributed to Oscar Wilde in Vanity Fair of London)
1884: Defamation is one of the honest tributes which mediocrity pays to success. (Morning Appeal of Carson City, Nevada)
1884: Ridicule is the homage which mediocrity pays to genius. (Attributed to Oscar Wilde in The Hamilton Literary Monthly of Utica, New York)
1884: Satire is the homage that mediocrity pays to genius. (Attributed to Oscar Wilde in The Yale Literary Magazine of New Haven, Connecticut)
1888: Imitation is the tribute which mediocrity pays to genius. (The Standard Stenographic Magazine, Iowa City, Iowa.)
1891: Imitation can be made the sincerest form of insult. (Oscar Wilde in the essay The Decay of Lying)
1893: Detraction is the only tribute which mediocrity can pay to the great. (Spoken by Herbert Beerbohm Tree during a lecture at the Royal Institute in London)
1894: He considered caricature to be the sincerest compliment that mediocrity could pay to merit. (Attributed to Oscar Wilde in The Birkenhead News of England)
1936: Caricature is the tribute which mediocrity pays to genius. (Attributed to Oscar Wilde in the book Oscar Wilde Discovers America 1882)
1999: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery mediocrity can pay to genius. (Attributed to Oscar Wilde in The Daily News Leader of Staunton, Virginia)
Details for selected citations are given below in chronological order.
In 1714 “The Spectator” of London published by Joseph Addison printed a partial match for the saying:3
It is a nice Reflection, which I have heard a Friend of mine make, that you may be sure a Woman loves a Man, when she uses his Expressions, tells his Stories, or imitates his Manner. This gives a secret Delight; for Imitation is a kind of artless Flattery, and mightily favours the powerful Principle of Self-love.
In 1820 English cleric Charles Caleb Colton published “Lacon: or, Many Things In Few Words” which included the following partial match:4
IMITATION is the sincerest of flattery.
In 1842 “The Dublin Monthly Magazine” of Dublin, Ireland printed an article praising the Irish chemist Robert Kane. The article complained that some books were copying from Kane’s “Elements of Chemistry”, and the article contained a match for the saying:5
La Rochefoucault said that “Hypocrisy was the unconscious homage that Vice paid to Virtue;” may we not say too that Plagiarism is the homage that Mediocrity pays to Genius
Also, in 1842 the piece in “The Dublin Monthly Magazine” was reprinted in “The Cork Examiner” of Cork, Ireland. Hence, it achieved further circulation.6
In 1851 the humor magazine “Punch” of London printed a matching expression:7
A THOUGHT.—Imitation is the homage which Mediocrity pays to Superiority.
The bon mot in “Punch” was reprinted with acknowledgement in newspapers such as “The Wells Journal”8 of Wells, England and the “Buxton Herald”9 of Buxton, England.
Also, in 1854 “Punch” printed a variant of the saying while complaining about magazines which were copying the style and humor of “Punch”. The following passage used the pronoun “his” to refer to the mascot of “Punch” which was used as a metonym. The word “dullness” was spelled as “dulness”:10
Imitation is the homage that dulness pays to wit—the acknowledgment that successful talent receives from struggling quackery. The public have been nauseated with the amount of homage of this sort which Punch has experienced from those who have assumed, as far as possible, his external appearance, without possessing any of his inner qualities.
The passage above was reprinted in other periodicals such as “Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts” in London.11
Oscar Wilde was born on October 16, 1854.
In 1857 “Punch” printed another variant which closely matched the first part of the saying under examination:12
“IMITATION IS BUT THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY!”
In 1859 “The Photographic News” of London printed a partial match:13
If an additional proof were wanting of the new and important features introduced into photographic literature by ourselves, we should have but to state that not only have those features been appropriated by others, but, actually, the very plan of our typographical arrangement has been adopted; thus furnishing a striking illustration of the truth of the remark, that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” as well as, in our opinion, the most abject.
Also, in 1859 “The Edinburgh News” of Edinburgh, Scotland printed a collection of sayings which included another variant:14
SANDS OF THOUGHT.
Weak minds fear the truth, strong minds the untruth.
Envy is the homage which mediocrity pays to greatness.
The word “accident” is unknown in the vocabulary of God.
In 1862 “Punch” published another variant while praising itself:15
Imitation is the homage that dulness pays to genius. Such homage is paid constantly at the throne of the great Punch.
The 1862 remark in “Punch” was reprinted in periodicals such as “Reynolds’s Miscellany”16 of London and “The Kenosha Telegraph”17 of Kenosha, Wisconsin.
In 1874 “The Huddersfield Examiner” of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England printed a variant while praising “Punch”:18
No sooner was Punch a decided success, than a whole host of comic papers sprung into existence—another instance of the truth of the saying that imitation is the highest compliment mediocrity pays to genius.
In 1879 the “Muscatine Weekly Journal” of Muscatine, Iowa published the following:19
A writer has well said that “Imitation is the flattery which mediocrity pays to genius.” It is no less true also, that success in any department of life almost invariably brings upon the head of the successful man a storm of abuse, detraction and lies . . .
Also, in 1879 “The Freeman’s Journal” of Dublin, Ireland printed this variant:20
If envy is the tribute which mediocrity pays to greatness, naturally Dr. Newman has been “denounced.”
On January 6, 1882 “The Boston Daily Globe” of Boston, Massachusetts reported a remark credited to Oscar Wilde who was attending a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera “Patience” as mentioned near the beginning of this article:21
When Bunthorne walked on the stage, with his affected stride, Wilde said to Miss Gabrielle Greeley, who was one of the party in the box: “That is the homage which mediocrity pays to that which is not mediocre.”
On the same day an article appeared in “The Brooklyn Daily Times” of Brooklyn, New York which credited Wilde with a slightly different version of the remark:22
He occupied a prominent seat and was, of course, the object of much attention on the part of the audience, a homage which he greatly enjoyed, as he remarked to none of his feminine admirers when the public turned its lorgnette upon him, “This is one of the compliments that mediocrity pay to those that are not mediocre.”
On January 10, 1882 “The New York Times” reported comments delivered by Oscar Wilde during a lecture as mentioned previously in this article:23
“The pre-Raphaelites were a number of young poets and painters who banded together in London . . .
Mr. Wilde continued: “Satire paid them the homage which mediocrity pays to genius. Their detractors blinded the public, but simply confirmed the artists in their convictions.
In March 1882 “The Daily Inter Ocean” of Chicago, Illinois credited Oscar Wilde with another version of the remark:24
Of course, as Wilde says, this sort of caricaturing is “the compliment which mediocrity pays to superiority” . . .
In May 1884 a short profile of Oscar Wilde appeared in “Vanity Fair” magazine of London. The profile was reprinted in periodicals such as “The Staffordshire Sentinel”25 of Staffordshire, England and “The Drogheda Conservative”26 of Drogheda, Ireland. The profile attributed another remark to Wilde:
“He has lived through much laughter, in which he has always joined. He has many disciples, and is of opinion that ‘imitation is the sincerest form of insult.’ He is twenty-eight years old, comes of a literary family, and is essentially modern. He is to be married next week.”
In July 1884 the “Morning Appeal” of Carson City, Nevada printed another anonymous variant:27
Defamation is one of the honest tributes which mediocrity pays to success.
In November 1884 “The Hamilton Literary Monthly” published by the students of Hamilton College in Utica, New York credited Oscar Wilde with a variant using the word “ridicule”:28
While all the world persecuted, Galileo proclaimed the revolution of the earth. Amid discouragement and derision, Columbus started out on his voyage of discovery. Truly Oscar Wilde has said, “Ridicule is the homage which mediocrity pays to genius.”
Also, in November 1884 “The Yale Literary Magazine” published by students of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut credited Oscar Wilde with a variant using the word “satire”:29
. . . the notorious Oscar Wilde, who shrewdly declared that “Satire is the homage that mediocrity pays to genius.”
In 1888 “The Standard Stenographic Magazine” of Iowa City, Iowa published an article about typewriters which extolled the quality of machines made by Remington. Other devices were described as poor imitations:30
It does not require genius to imitate. So-called superior machines in great numbers, all with various alleged improvements, will be hawked around to catch the unwary—imitation is the tribute which mediocrity pays to genius.
In 1891 Wilde published the collection “Intentions” which included the essay “The Decay of Lying” which included a pertinent statement:31
Art creates an incomparable and unique effect, and, having done so, passes on to other things. Nature, upon the other hand, forgetting that imitation can be made the sincerest form of insult, keeps on repeating this effect until we all become absolutely wearied of it.
In 1893 English actor and theatre manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree delivered a lecture titled “The Imaginative Faculty in its Relation to the Modern Drama.” before the Royal Institute in London. Tree employed an instance of the saying:32
The real man is to be found in his work. It is this personality which is often obliterated by his biographer—for detraction is the only tribute which mediocrity can pay to the great.
In 1894 “The Birkenhead News” of England attributed to Wilde another instance of the saying:33
When Mr. Gilbert caricatured him as Bunthorne in “Patience,” Wilde wrote him a note of thanks, in which he said that he considered caricature to be the sincerest compliment that mediocrity could pay to merit.
In 1936 “Oscar Wilde Discovers America 1882” by Lloyd Lewis and Henry Justin Smith contained a version of the 1882 anecdote during which Wilde reacted to the Bunthorne character:34
Everybody turned back to the box to see how Oscar would take this satire upon himself. lolling as he was, in the shadows of the box, his expression could not be seen, but next day the newspapers said that he had observed to a lady next him, “Caricature is the tribute which mediocrity pays to genius.”
In 1946 the biography “Oscar Wilde: His Life and Wit” by Hesketh Pearson included a description of Wilde’s visit to Harvard while he was in the United States. The book presented a remark Wilde made at Harvard:35
. . . his epigram that “caricature is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius” was loudly applauded . . .
In 1999 “The Daily News Leader” of Staunton, Virginia credited Wilde with an exact match for the saying under examination:36
As Oscar Wilde said: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery mediocrity can pay to genius.
In conclusion, a partial thematic match for this family of sayings appeared in 1714 within “The Spectator” edited by Joseph Addison. A match for the first part of the saying appeared in 1820 in a book by Charles Caleb Colton. A full match using different vocabulary appeared in 1842 in an article without a byline. The family of expressions evolved over time. Oscar Wilde constructed and employed sayings within this family beginning in 1882.
Image Notes: Picture assembled from public domain images of “Copy” and “Do Not Copy” from OpenClipart-Vectors on Pixabay combined with a public domain duplication icon from Clker-Free-Vector-Images on Pixabay.
Acknowledgements: Great thanks to Luigi Muzii, Edokwin, and chamblee54 whose comments and inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1882 January 6, The Boston Daily Globe, Oscar Wilde Witnesses “Patience”, Quote Page 1, Column 3, Boston, Massachusetts. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1882 January 10, The New York Times, Oscar Wilde’s Lecture: A Large Audience Listens To the Young Aesthete, Quote Page 5, Column 2, New York, New York. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- The Spectator, Volume 8, Issue Number 605, Issue Date: October 11, 1714, Quote Page 272, Printed for Jacob Tonson, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1820, Lacon: or, Many Things In Few Words; Addressed To Those Who Think by Reverend C. C. Colton (Charles Caleb Colton), Quote Page 113, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1842 June, The Dublin Monthly Magazine, Kane’s Chemistry, Start Page 412, Quote Page 419, Samuel J. Machen, Dublin, Ireland. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1842 August 22, The Cork Examiner, Professor Kane, Quote Page 4, Column 5, County Cork, Ireland. (British Newspaper Archive) ↩︎
- 1851 September 13, Punch or the London Charivari, Volume 21, A Thought, Quote Page 116, Column 2, Published at the Office of Punch, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1851 September 13, The Wells Journal, Facetiae (From Punch), Quote Page 5, Column 6, County: Somerset, England. (British Newspaper Archive) ↩︎
- 1851 September 13, Buxton Herald, Punch’s Corner (Extracted from this day’s Punch), Quote Page 3, Column 7, Buxton, Derbyshire, England. (British Newspaper Archive) ↩︎
- 1854 February 11, Punch or the London Charivari, Volume 26, Number 657, The Monkey Tribe In Art Literature, Quote Page 51, Column 2, Published at the Office of Punch, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1854 March 4, Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts, Volume 1, Number 9, The Monkey Tribe In Art Literature (From Punch), Quote Page 144, Column 1, William and Roberts Chambers, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1857 October 31, Punch or the London Charivari, Volume 32, Crinoline for Gentlemen, Start Page 183, Quote Page 184, Column 1, Published at the Office of Punch, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1859 March 11, The Photographic News, Volume 2, Number 27, Untitled article, Quote Page 1, Column 1, Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1859 September 24, The Edinburgh News, Sands of Thought, Quote Page 5, Column 7, Edinburgh, Scotland. (British Newspaper Archive) ↩︎
- 1862, Punch or the London Charivari, Volume 42, Punch’s Almanack for 1862, Jones’s Meditations, Unnumbered Page, Column 1, Published at the Office of Punch, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1862 January 25, Reynolds’s Miscellany of Romance, General Literature, Science, and Art, Volume 28, Number 711, Wit and Humour (From “Punch’s Almanack for 1862.”), Quote Page 87, Column 2, London, England. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1862 March 13, The Kenosha Telegraph, What Not, Quote Page 1, Column 3, Kenosha, Wisconsin. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1874 January 3, The Huddersfield Examiner, Supplement to the Huddersfield Examiner, Punch and His Followers, Quote Page 1, Column 4, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1879 May 16, Muscatine Weekly Journal, The Penalty of Success, Quote Page 5, Column 3, Muscatine, Iowa. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1879 June 27, The Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, Latest News: London Correspondence, Quote Page 5, Column 6, Dublin, Ireland. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1882 January 6, The Boston Daily Globe, Oscar Wilde Witnesses “Patience”, Quote Page 1, Column 3, Boston, Massachusetts. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1882 January 6, The Brooklyn Daily Times, (Untitled item), Quote Page 2, Column 2, Brooklyn, New York. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1882 January 10, The New York Times, Oscar Wilde’s Lecture: A Large Audience Listens To the Young Aesthete, Quote Page 5, Column 2, New York, New York. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1882 March 18, The Daily Inter Ocean, Camille’s Creator, Quote Page 9, Column 3, Chicago, Illinois. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1884 May 24, The Staffordshire Sentinel, Mr. Oscar Wilde (acknowledging Vanity Fair), Quote Page 3, Column 2, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1884 May 31, The Drogheda Conservative, Mr. Oscar Wilde, Quote Page 6, Column 6, Drogheda, Louth, Ireland. (British Newspaper Archive) ↩︎
- 1884 July 22, Morning Appeal, (Untitled short article), Quote Page 2, Column 1, Carson City, Nevada. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1884 November, The Hamilton Literary Monthly, Volume 19, Number 3, A Discourse on Metaphysics, Start Page 103, Column 103, Conducted by the Senior Class of Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, Printed on the Press of Curtiss & Childs, Utica, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1884 November, The Yale Literary Magazine, Conducted by the Students of Yale College, Volume 50, Number 2, Whole Number 440, Portfolio, Quote Page 82, Published by the Editors, New Haven, Connecticut. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1888 September, The Standard Stenographic Magazine, Volume 1, Number 4, Inventions, Start Page 7, Quote Page 7, Column 2, Iowa City, Iowa. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1891, Intentions by Oscar Wilde, The Decay of Lying, Start Page 3, Quote Page 34, Heinemann and Balestier, Leipzig, Germany. (HathiTrust Full View) link ↩︎
- 1893 June 1, The Stage, Imagination In Acting: Lecture by Mr. H. Beerbohm Tree, Start Page 8, Quote Page 9, Column 2, London, England. (British Newspaper Archive) ↩︎
- 1894 March 24, The Birkenhead News, (Untitled short article), Quote Page 2, Column 2, Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1936, Oscar Wilde Discovers America 1882 by Lloyd Lewis and Henry Justin Smith, Book 2: First Discoveries, Chapter 2: Lilies Over Ladies’ Hearts, Quote Page 54 and 55, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1946, Oscar Wilde: His Life and Wit by Hesketh Pearson, Chapter 6: The Stage, Quote Page 58, Harper & Brothers, New York. (Verified on paper) ↩︎
- 1999 June 25, The Daily News Leader, Fall TV not good by Fred Pfisterer, Quote Page 4, Column 6, Staunton, Virginia. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎