Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

The line is commonly used as a witty injunction toward authenticity: cultivate your own character rather than imitating others, because every social “role” is already occupied. Its epigrammatic structure—half moral advice, half comic deflation—fits the kind of paradox and social satire associated with Wilde’s public persona. As a modern maxim, it functions less as a philosophical argument than as a memorable prompt against conformity and self-erasure. However, because the attribution to Wilde is uncertain, the quote’s significance today may say as much about the popular image of Wilde (as champion of individuality) as about any demonstrable statement he made.