My latest pack of cigarette papers offers me – appropriately enough – a quote from Oscar Wilde – “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go”. I had no idea this was one of Wilde’s – the last time I saw it – in slightly different form – was over the bar in a pub in Kettering on one of those little signs you can buy as a souvenir at the seaside that usually say “Please don’t ask for credit as a punch in the mouth often offends”.* Not ascribed, I think, to Wilde on the pub sign, but “An old Irish saying” – though my memory about the detail of this is a little foggy.
Tried googling the quote to verify its authorship by typing in “some cause happiness wherever they go Wilde” and it asked me whether I really meant “some cause happiness whenever they go wild”. Restrained myself from saying yes, though it might have brought up some interesting results.
* Not one of Wilde’s either, I think.
The Crimson Rambler 