ON: FEMINISM

OSCAR WILDE Observes:

Feminists make the fundamental error of mis-identifying the cure as the disease.                

MARK TWAIN Remarks:

By rejecting femininity the feminists automatically affirm the superiority of everything masculine.         

ON: AMERICA

OSCAR WILDE Observes:

Nations must be founded on a common virtue.  AMERICA is founded upon Hope.  This is its greatest strength.                

MARK TWAIN Remarks:

I hope that no one finds out that it is our fatal flaw as well.        

ON: LITERARY THEFTS

OSCAR WILDE Observes:

I see nothing wrong with stealing material, ideas and even techniques from other writers.  It does require a high standard of taste and ability to select whom to steal from... and even more then to conceal the debt.              

MARK TWAIN Remarks:

I wonder if he would mind if I repeated this, without attribution, of course.      

ON: SMALL MINDS

OSCAR WILDE Observes:

When presented with a fact a small mind will care about who said it, and examine how it is expressed, rather then simply accepting it.  This is a fact.            

MARK TWAIN Remarks:

I wonder who said this?  And should there really be a comma after the word "expressed?"      

ON: CRITICISM

OSCAR WILDE Observes:

He who criticizes any one work of literature praises literature itself.           

MARK TWAIN Remarks:

The literary critic is the type of man who would object that the hangman's rope is too short because it did not allow its occupant to reach the ground safely.      

ON: AUTHOR'S EVALUATIONS

OSCAR WILDE Observes:

The only secret truly and ordinarily kept is the opinion one author has regarding the works of another.         

MARK TWAIN Remarks:

It's best that I not comment on that.