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"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."

"I can resist anything except temptation."

Lord Darlington, "Lady Windermere's Fan"

"It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious."

Lord Darlington, "Lady Windermere's Fan"

"Life is far too important a thing to ever talk seriously about it."

Lord Darlington, "Lady Windermere's Fan"

"It is a dangerous thing to reform anyone."

Lord Darlington, "Lady Windermere's Fan"

"Between men and women, there is no friendship possible. There is passion, emnity, worship, love, but no friendship."

Lord Darlington, "Lady Windermere's Fan"

"I won't tell you that the world matters nothing, or the world's voice, or the voice of society. They matter a good deal. They matter far too much. But there are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely—or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands. You have that moment now. Choose!"

Lord Darlington, "Lady Windermere's Fan"

"Misfortunes one can endure—they come from outside, they are accidents. But to suffer for one's own faults—ah! there is the sting of life."

Lord Windermere, "Lady Windermere's Fan"

"I am afraid of being myself."

Lady Windermere, "Lady Windermere's Fan"

"Actions are the first tragedy in life, words are the second. Words are perhaps the worst."

Lady Windermere, "Lady Windermere's Fan"

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

Lord Darlington, "Lady Windermere's Fan"

"In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it."

Mr. Dumby, "Lady Windermere's Fan"

"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes."

Mr. Dumby, "Lady Windermere's Fan"

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

Algernon, "The Importance of Being Earnest"

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

Miss Prism, "The Importance of Being Earnest"

"All good looks are a snare.
They are a snare that every sensible man would like to be caught in."

Cecily & Algernon, "The Importance of Being Earnest"

"It is always painful to part from people whom one has known for a very brief space of time. 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."

Cecily, "The Importance of Being Earnest"

"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!"

Jack, "The Importance of Being Earnest"

"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it."

"Yes, I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can find their way by moonlight— and their punishment is they see the dawn before the rest of the world."

"Only the shallow shall know themselves."

"The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable."

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell the truth."

"There is luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel no one else has a right to blame us."

"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter."

"No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist."

"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative."

"Every saint has a past and every sinner a future."

"Friendship is far more tragic than love. It lasts longer."

"Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong."

"The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it."

"Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."

dying words

~Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde
poet, novelist, & playwright (1854—1900)

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