The Importance of Being Earnest

by Oscar Wilde

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

Oh! I hope I am not that. It would leave no room for developments, and I intend to develop in many directions.

You see, if one plays good music, people don’t listen, and if one plays bad music people don’t talk.

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

I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays. You can’t go anywhere without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left.

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