The Importance of Being Earnest

by Oscar Wilde

But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty.

The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public.

You’re quite perfect, Miss Fairfax. Gwendolen. Oh! I hope I am not that. It would leave no room for developments, and I intend to develop in many directions.

Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others. Health is the primary duty of life. I am always telling that to your poor uncle, but he never seems to take much notice .

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

at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.

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.

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

One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them.

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.