Quotes from Lady Windermere's Fan

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“I can resist anything except temptation.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“There are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely-or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. (Mr. Dumby, Act III)”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“Misfortunes one can endure--they come from outside, they are accidents. But to suffer for one's own faults--ah!--there is the sting of life.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“My life-my whole life- take it, and do with it what you will. I love you-love you as I have never loved any living thing. From the moment I met you I loved you, loved you blindly, adoringly,madly!

You didn't know it then-you know it now.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“Cecil Graham: What is a cynic?
Lord Darlington: A man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.
Cecil Graham: And a sentimentalist, my dear Darlington, is a man who sees an absurd value in everything and doesn’t know the market price of any single thing.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“I like talking to a brick wall- it's the only thing in the world that never contradicts me!”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“Ideals are dangerous things. Realities are better. They wound, but they're better.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“Experience is a question of instinct about life.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“How long could you love a woman who didn't love you, Cecil?
A woman who didn't love me? Oh, all my life!”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“Good heavens! how marriage ruins a man! It's as demoralizing as cigarettes, and far more expensive.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is absolutely fatal.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“My experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't know anything at all.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“Life is terrible. It rules us, we do not rule it.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“Nowadays we are all of us so hard up that the only pleasant things to pay are compliments. They’re the only things we can pay.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“God knows; I won't be an Oxford don anyhow. I'll be a poet, a writer, a dramatist. Somehow or other I'll be famous, and if not famous, I'll be notorious. Or perhaps I'll lead the life of pleasure for a time and then—who knows?—rest and do nothing. What does Plato say is the highest end that man can attain here below? To sit down and contemplate the good. Perhaps that will be the end of me too.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“I think life too complex a thing to be settled by these hard and fast rules.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“My dear Arthur, I never talk scandal. I only talk gossip.
What is the difference between scandal and gossip?
Oh! Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“A man who moralizes is a hypocrite, and a woman who does so is invariably plain.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“Do you know that I am afraid that good people do a great deal of harm in this world? Certainly the greatest harm they do is that they make badness of such extraordinary importance.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“I don't like compliments and I don't see why a man should think he is pleasing a woman enormously when he says to her a whole heap of things that he doesn't mean.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“The work of art is to dominate the spectator: the spectator is not to dominate the work of art.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“It's most dangerous nowadays for a husband to pay any attention to his wife in public. It always makes people think that he beats her when they are alone. The world has grown so suspicious of anything that looks like a happy married life.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

“I find I have, and a heart doesn’t suit me, Windermere. Somehow it doesn’t go with modern dress. It makes one look old.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Lady Windermere's Fan

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About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.