The Importance of Being Earnest

by Oscar Wilde

Algernon. I really don’t see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. 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. If ever I get married, I’ll certainly try to forget the fact.

More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn’t read.

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

You don’t seem to realise, that in married life three is company and two is none.

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

The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to some one else, if she is plain.

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