The Importance Of Being Earnest Quotes

“Well, I don't like your clothes. You look perfectly ridiculous in them. Why on earth don't you go up and change? It's perfectly childish to be in mourning for a man who is actually staying a whole week with you in your house as a guest. I call it grotesque.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest: And Other Plays

“Now, I have always wanted to agree with Lady Bracknell that there is no earthly use for the upper and lower classes unless they set each other a good example. But I shouldn't pretend that the consensus itself was any of my concern. It was absurd and slightly despicable, in the first decade of Thatcher and Reagan, to hear former and actual radicals intone piously against 'the politics of confrontation.' I suppose that, if this collection has a point, it is the desire of one individual to see the idea of confrontation kept alive.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays and Minority Reports

“JACK
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.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

“There is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence. I pity any poor woman whose husband is not called Ernest.”
― Oscar Wilde

“My dear fellow, the way you flirt with Gwendolen is perfectly disgraceful. It is almost as disgraceful as the way Gwendolen flirts with you.”
― Oscar Wilde

“I am afraid it is quite clear, Cecily, that neither of us is engaged to be married to any one.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

“Did you hear what I was playing, Lane?
LANE. I didn't think it polite to listen, sir.
ALGERNON. I'm sorry for that, for your sake. I don't play accurately - any one can play accurately - but I play with wonderful expression.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

“And who are these people you amuse?
JACK. Oh, neighbours, neighbours.
ALGERNON. Got nice neighbours in your part of Shropshire?
JACK. Perfectly horrid! Never speak to one of them.
ALGERNON. How immensely you must amuse them!”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

“It is a very ungentlemanly thing to read a private cigarette case.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

“Please don't touch the cucumber sandwiches. They are ordered especially for Aunt Augusta.
JACK: Well, you have been eating them all the time.
ALGERNON: That is quite a different matter. She is my aunt.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

“JACK: I would like to be allowed to take advantage of Lady Bracknell's temporary absence...

GWENDOLEN. I would certainly advise you to do so. Mamma has a way of coming back suddenly into a room that I have often had to speak to her about.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

“JACK. [Nervously.] Miss Fairfax, ever since I met you I have admired you more than any girl ... I have ever met since ... I met you.

GWENDOLEN. Yes, I am quite well aware of the fact. And I often wish that in public, at any rate, you had been more demonstrative.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

“JACK. We must get married at once. There is no time to be lost.
GWENDOLEN. Married, Mr. Worthing?
JACK. Well... surely. You know that I love you, and you let me to believe, Miss Fairfax, that you were not absolutely indifferent to me.
GWENDOLEN. I adore you. But you haven't proposed to me yet. Nothing has been said at all about marriage. The subject has not even been touched on.
JACK. Well... may I propose to you now?
GWENDOLEN. I think it would be an admirable opportunity. And to spare you any possible disappointment, Mr. Worthing, I think it only fair to tell you quite frankly beforehand that I am fully determined to accept you.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

“LADY BRACKNELL. I have always been of the opinion that a man who desires to be married should know either everything or nothing. Which do you know?
JACK. [After some hesitation.] I know nothing, Lady Bracknell.
LADY BRACKNELL. I am please to hear it. I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

“LADY BRACKNELL. I have always been of the opinion that a man who desires to be married should know either everything or nothing. Which do you know?

JACK. [After some hesitation.] I know nothing, Lady Bracknell.

LADY BRACKNELL. I am pleased to hear it. I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his.”
― Oscar Wilde

“Theobald had proposed to call him George after old Mr Pontifex, but strange to say, Mr Pontifex over-ruled him in favour of the name Ernest. The word 'earnest' was just beginning to come into fashion, and he thought the possession of such a name might, like his having been baptised in water from the Jordan, have a permanent effect upon the boy’s character, and influence him for good during the more critical periods of his life.”
― Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh

“Mr. Worthing! Rise, sir, from this semi-recumbent posture. It is most indecorous.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest. Interpretationshilfe.