Wilde-isms

A repository for quotes from the brilliant mind of Oscar Wilde.

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Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest

Reader Submission: Title by Vijay Welch

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bookoasis:

Happy Birthday, Oscar Wilde.

October 16, 1854 - November 30, 1900

“Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them! They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of viol or of lute. Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?”

   —  Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

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Yet each man kills the thing he loves, By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word. The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword!

The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Oscar Wilde

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I never change, except in my affections.

Gwendolen Fairfax, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

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Algernon is an extremely, I may almost say an ostentatiously, eligible young man. He has nothing, but he looks everything. What more can one desire?

Lady Bracknell, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

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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.

Lady Bracknell, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

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

Gwendolen Fairfax, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

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When I am in trouble, eating is the only thing that consoles me. 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. At the present moment I am eating muffins because I am unhappy. Besides, I am particularly fond of muffins.

Algernon Moncrieff, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

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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.

Algernon Moncrieff, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

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That is absurd. One has a right to Bunbury anywhere one chooses. Every serious Bunburyist knows that.

Algernon Moncrieff, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

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Gwendolen - Cecily - 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.

Jack Worthing, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

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I could deny it if I liked. I could deny anything if I liked. But my name certainly is John.

Jack Worthing, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

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You have filled my tea with lumps of sugar, and though I asked most distinctly for bread and butter, you have given me cake. I am known for the gentleness of my disposition, and the extraordinary sweetness of my nature, but I warn you, Miss Cardew, you may go too far.

Gwendolen Fairfax, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

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You see, it is simply a very young girls' record of her own thoughts and impressions, and consequently meant for publication.

Cecily Cardew, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

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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 Cardew, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

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If I am occasionally a little over-dressed, I make up for it by being always immensely over-educated.

Algernon Moncrieff, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

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Oh, I don't think I would care to catch a sensible man. I shouldn't know what to talk to him about.

Cecily Cardew, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde