Oscar Wilde Quotes - The Importance Of Being Earnest

The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.


Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them?


The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever.


All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.


To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.


London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years.


Jack: That, my dear Algy, is the whole truth pure and simple.

Algernon: The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!

Of course the music is a great difficulty. You see, if one plays good music, people don't listen, and if one plays bad music people don't talk.

Indeed, when I am in really great trouble, as any one who knows me intimately will tell you, I refuse everything except food and drink.

Memory, my dear Cecily, is the diary that we all carry about with us.

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.

To speak frankly, I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other’s character before marriage, which I think is never advisable.

It is very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth. It is the first time in my life that I have ever been reduced to such a painful position, and I am really quite inexperienced in doing anything of the kind.

Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.

In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing.

When a man does exactly what a woman expects him to do she doesn't think much of him. One should always do what a woman doesn't expect, just as one should say what she doesn't understand.

Well, I can't eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One must eat muffins quite calmly, it is the only way to eat them.

I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.

I have always been of opinion that a man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing.