Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven’t got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Algernon, Act 1.
Her mother is perfectly unbearable. Never met such a Gorgon. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Jack, Act 1.
I love hearing my relations abused. It is the only thing that makes me put up with them at all. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Algernon, Act 1.
I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays. You can’t go anywhere without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Jack, Act 1.
My dear fellow, the truth isn’t quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl. What extraordinary ideas you have about the way to behave to a woman! – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Jack, Act 1.
The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Miss Prism, Act 2.
I should have remembered that when one is going to lead an entirely new life, one requires regular and wholesome meals. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Cecily, Act 2.
Memory…is the diary that we all carry about with us. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Miss Prism, Act 2.
On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one’s mind. It becomes a pleasure. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Gwendolen, Act 2.
Oh, I don’t think I would care to catch a sensible man. I shouldn’t know what to talk to him about. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Cecily, Act 2.
By persistently remaining single, a man converts himself into a permanent public temptation. Men should be more careful; this very celibacy leads weaker vessels astray. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Miss Prism, Act 2.
Good looks are a snare that every sensible man would like to be caught in. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Act 2.
I never saw anybody take so long to dress, and with such little result. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Algernon, Act 2.
No married man is ever attractive except to his wife. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Miss Prism, Act 2.
Chasuble: Your brother was, I believe, unmarried, was he not? Jack: Oh yes. Miss Prism: People who live entirely for pleasure usually are. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Act 2.
My duty as a gentleman has never interfered with my pleasures in the smallest degree. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Algernon, Act 2.
If I am occasionally a little over-dressed, I make up for it by being always immensely over-educated. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Algernon, Act 2.
The absence of old friends one can endure with equanimity. But even a momentary separation from anyone to whom one has just been introduced is almost unbearable. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Cecily, Act 2.
A man who is much talked about is always very attractive. One feels there must be something in him, after all. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Cecily, Act 2.
I don’t quite like women who are interested in philanthropic work. I think it is so forward of them. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Cecily, Act 2.
And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties he becomes painfully effeminate, does he not And I don’t like that. It makes men so very attractive. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of being Earnest, Gwendolen, Act 2.
Well, to speak with perfect candour, Cecily, I wish that you were fully forty-two, and more than usually plain for your age. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest, Gwendolen, Act 2.
I think that whenever one has anything unpleasant to say, one should always be quite candid. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest, Cecily, Act 2.
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest, Gwendolen, Act 2.
Cecily: When I see a spade I call it a spade. Gwendolen: I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social spheres have been widely different. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 2.
Personally I cannot understand how anybody manages to exist in the country, if anybody who is anybody does. The country always bores me to death. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest, Gwendolen, Act 2.
Bread and butter, please. Cake is rarely seen at the best houses nowadays. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest, Gwendolen, Act 2.
I could deny it if I liked. I could deny anything if I liked. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest, Jack, Act 2.
It is very vulgar to talk about one’s business. Only people like stockbrokers do that, and then merely at dinner parties. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest, Algernon, Act 2.
Well, I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them. – Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest, Algernon, Act 2.