36 quotes
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.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
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.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty and to someone else if she is plain.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Mothers, of course, are all right. They pay a chap's bills and don't bother him. But fathers bother a chap and never pay his bills.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
The number 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.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
I hope, Cecily, I shall not offend you if I state quite frankly and openly that you seem to me to be in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
When a man does exactly what a woman expects him to do she doesn't think much of him. One should always do what a woman doesn't expect, just as one should say what she doesn't understand.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune ... to lose both seems like carelessness.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Ah! That must be Aunt Augusta. Only relatives, or creditors, ever ring in that Wagnerian manner.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
No gentleman ever has any money.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
I hear her hair has turned quite gold from grief
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
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.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Well, I can't eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One must eat muffins quite calmly, it is the only way to eat them.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Divorces are made in Heaven.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
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.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)