An interesting footnote to Womble's quote is that a slightly modified version is widely attributed to Georges Clemenceau, who was French Prime Minister before and after the first World War. He apparently said:
"America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization."
Clearly it's pretty much identical to the one from Wilde. However, the web-sites and books that quote Clemenceau never seem to acknowledge where he got it from. I guess it’s similar to many of the quotes attributed to modern day presidents that were actually written by their speech writers.
Given the period of history that Clemenceau was Prime Minister of France, it does seem to have been an interesting thing to say. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> Maybe he said it before WW1?
