Several times contemporary names came up and I was compelled to notice for the first time that really he was contemptuous of almost everyone, and had a sharp word to say about many who were supposed to be his friends.

One day we spoke of Ricketts and Shannon; I was saying that had Ricketts lived in Paris he would have had a great reputation: many of his designs I thought extraordinary, and his intellect was peculiarly French--_mordant_ even.
Oscar did not like to hear praise of anyone.
"Do you know my word for them, Frank?
I like it.

I call them 'Temper and Temperament.'" Was his punishment making him a little spiteful or was it the temptation of the witty phrase?
"What do you think of Arthur Symons ?" I asked.
"Oh, Frank, I said of him long ago that he was a sad example of an Egoist who had no Ego." "And what of your compatriot, George Moore?
He's popular enough," I continued.
"Popular, Frank, as if that counted.

George Moore has conducted his whole education in public.

He had written two or three books before he found out there was such a thing as English grammar.