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‘Art never expresses anything but itself.' (The Decay
of Lying, 1891, p.43.)
‘Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example,
what on earth is the use of them?’ (The Importance of
Being Earnest, 1895, Act I.)
‘It is very vulgar to talk like a dentist when one isn’t
a dentist. It produces a false impression’ (Ibid.)
‘The truth is rarely pure, and never simple’ (Ibid.)
‘In married life three is company and two none.’ (Ibid.)
‘I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called
Bunbury, in order that I may be able to go down into the
country whenever I choose. (Ibid.)
‘To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a
misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.’ (Ibid.)
‘All women become like their mothers. That is their
tragedy. No man does. That’s his.’ (Ibid.)
(Miss Prism on her novel:) ‘The good ended happily, and
the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.’ (Ibid., Act
II.)
‘The chapter on the Fall of the Rupee you may omit. It
is somewhat too sensational.’ (Ibid.)
‘Charity, dear Miss Prism, charity! None of us are
perfect. I myself am peculiarly susceptible to draughts.’ (Ibid.)
‘On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a
moral duty to speak one’s mind. It becomes a pleasure.’ (Ibid.)
‘Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.’
(Leadville, Impressions of America.)
‘Meredith is a prose Browning, and so is Browning. He
used poetry as a medium for writing in prose.’ (‘Intentions’,
The Critic as Artist [Part I].)
‘A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great
deal of it is absolutely fatal.’ (Ibid., p.2.)
‘Ah! don’t say that you agree with me. When people agree
with me I always feel that I must be wrong.’ (Ibid.)
‘As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always
have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it
will cease to be popular.’ (Ibid.)
‘There is no sin except stupidity.’ (Ibid.)
‘I couldn’t help it. I can resist everything except
temptation.’ (Lady Windermere’s Fan, 1891, Act I.)
‘Many a woman has a past, but I am told that she has at
least a dozen, and that they all fit.’ (Ibid.)
‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at
the stars.’ (Ibid., Act III.)
‘There is nothing in the whole world so unbecoming to a
woman as a Nonconformist conscience.’ (Ibid.)
Cecil Graham: ‘What is a cynic?’ Lord Darlington: ‘A man
who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.’
(Ibid., Act III.)
Dumby: ‘Experience is the name every one gives to their
mistakes.’ Graham: ‘One shouldn’t commit any.’ Dumby: ‘Life
would be very dull without them.’ (Ibid.)
‘There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written.’ (Preface,
Picture of Dorian Gray 1891.)
‘The moral life of man forms part of the subject matter
of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the
perfect use of an imperfect medium.’ (Ibid.)
‘There is only one thing in the world worse than being
talked about, and that is not being talked about.’ (Ibid.,
Chap. 1.)
‘A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his
enemies.’ (Ibid.)
‘The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to
it.’ (Ibid., Chap. 2.)
‘A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure.
It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more
can one want?’ (Ibid., Chap. 6.)
‘It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But [...]
it is better to be good than to be ugly.’ (Ibid., Chap. 17.)
‘Anybody can be good in the country.’ (Ibid., Chap. 19.)
‘Ss for the virtuous poor, one can pity them, of course,
but one cannot possibly admire them.’ (Soul of Man under
Socialism.)
‘Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by
the people for the people.’ (Ibid.)
Lord Illingworth: ‘They say, Lady Hunstanton, that when
good Americans die they go to Paris.’ Lady Hunstanton:
‘Indeed? And when bad Americans die, where do they go to?’
Lord Illingworth: ‘Oh, they go to America.’ (Mrs. Allonby,
A Woman of No Importance, 1893, Act I..)
‘The youth of America is their oldest tradition. It has
been going on now for three hundred years.’ (Ibid.)
‘The English country gentleman galloping after a fox the
unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.’ (Ibid.)
‘One should never trust a woman who tells one her real
age. A woman who would tell one that, would tell one
anything.’ (Ibid.)
Lord Illingworth: ‘The Book of Life begins with a man
and a woman in a garden.’ Mrs. Allonby: ‘It ends with
Revelations.’ (Ibid.)
‘Children begin by loving their parents; after a time
they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.’ (Ibid.)
Gerald: ‘I suppose society is wonderfully delightful!’
Lord Illingworth: ‘To be in it is merely a bore. But to be
out of it simply a tragedy.’ (A Woman of No Importance,
Act III.)
‘You should study the Peerage, Gerald. It is the best
thing in fiction the English have ever done.’ (Ibid.)
‘A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for
it.’ (Sebastian Melmoth, 1904, p.12; Oscariana
1910, p. 8.)
(At the New York Custom House,) ‘I have nothing to
declare except my genius.’ (Frank Harris, Oscar Wilde,
1918, p.75.)
‘He [Bernard Shaw] hasn’t an enemy in the world and none
of his friends like him.’ (quoted in Shaw: Sixteen Self
Sketches, Chap. 17.)
‘Ah, well, then,’ said Oscar, ‘I suppose that I shall
have to die beyond my means’. (Said when a huge fee for an
operation was mentioned; R. H. Sherard, Life of Oscar
Wilde, 1906.)
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