“Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it.”

What does it mean?

The joke turns logic upside down: normally important things are discussed seriously, but Wilde's character says life is so important that we should only talk about it lightly and with humour.

• “We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.”– Oscar Wilde
• “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”– Oscar Wilde
• “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”– Oscar Wilde
• “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”– Oscar Wilde