Quotes from The Canterville Ghost

“Yes, death. Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow. To forget time, to forget life, to be at peace. You can help me. You can open for me the portals of death's house, for love is always with you, and love is stronger than death is.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“He made me see what Life is, and what Death signifies, and why Love is stronger than both.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“You can have your secret as long as I have your heart[.]”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“When a golden girl can win
Prayer from out the lips of sin,
When the barren almond bears,
And a little child gives away its tears,
Then shall all the house be still
And peace come to Canterville.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“Far away beyond the pine-woods,' he answered, in a low dreamy voice, 'there is a little garden. There the grass grows long and deep, there are the great white stars of the hemlock flower, there the nightingale sings all night long. All night long he sings, and the cold, crystal moon looks down, and the yew-tree spreads out its giant arms over the sleepers.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“the Garden of Death"
"Yes, death. Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft
brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and
listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow. To
forget time, to forget life, to be at peace. You can help me.
You can open for me the portals of death's house, for love is
always with you, and love is stronger than death is.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“It is very wrong to kill any one[.]"
"Oh, I hate the cheap severity of abstract ethics!”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“It is very difficult sometimes to keep awake, especially at church, but there is no difficulty at all about sleeping.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“They were evidently people on a low, material plane of existence, and quite incapable of appreciating the symbolic value of sensuous phenomena.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“Once in New York, you are sure to be a great success. I know lots of people there who would give a hundred thousand dollars to have a grandfather, and much more than that to have a family ghost.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“Oh, I hate the cheap severity of abstract ethics!”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“The next day the ghost was very weak and tired. The terrible excitement of the last four weeks was beginning to have its effect. His nerves were completely shattered, and he started at the slightest noise. For five days he kept his room, and at last made up his mind to give up the point of the blood-stain on the library floor. If the Otis family did not want it, they clearly did not deserve it. They were evidently people on a low, material plane of existence, and quite incapable of appreciating the symbolic value of sensuous phenomena. The question of phantasmic apparitions, and the development of astral bodies, was of course quite a different matter, and really not under his control. It was his solemn duty to appear in the corridor once a week, and to gibber from the large oriel window on the first and third Wednesdays in every month, and he did not see how he could honourably escape from his obligations. It is quite true that his life had been very evil, but, upon the other hand, he was most conscientious in all things connected with the supernatural. For the next three Saturdays, accordingly, he traversed the corridor as usual between midnight and three o’clock, taking every possible precaution against being either heard or seen. He removed his boots, trod as lightly as possible on the old worm-eaten boards, wore a large black velvet cloak, and was careful to use the Rising Sun Lubricator for oiling his chains. I am bound to acknowledge that it was with a good deal of difficulty that he brought himself to adopt this last mode of protection. However, one night, while the family were at dinner, he slipped into Mr. Otis’s bedroom and carried off the bottle. He felt a little humiliated at first, but afterwards was sensible enough to see that there was a great deal to be said for the invention, and, to a certain degree, it served his purpose. Still, in spite of everything, he was not left unmolested. Strings were continually being stretched across the corridor, over which he tripped in the dark, and on one occasion, while dressed for the part of ‘Black Isaac, or the Huntsman of Hogley Woods,’ he met with a severe fall, through treading on a butter-slide, which the twins had constructed from the entrance of the Tapestry Chamber to the top of the oak staircase.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“I suppose because we have no ruins and no curiosities,” said Virginia satirically.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“In fact, he was dressed for the character of ‘Jonas the Graveless, or the Corpse-Snatcher of Chertsey Barn,’ one of his most remarkable impersonations”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“The blood-stain has been much admired by tourists and others, and cannot be removed." "That is all nonsense," cried Washington Otis; "Pinkerton's Champion Stain Remover and Paragon Detergent will clean it up in no time," and before the terrified housekeeper could interfere, he had fallen upon his knees, and was rapidly scouring the floor with a small stick of what looked like a black cosmetic. In a few moments no trace of the blood-stain could be seen.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“Pinkerton's Champion Stain Remover and Paragon Detergent”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“My dear Hiram," cried Mrs. Otis, "what can we do with a woman who faints?" "Charge it to her like breakages," answered the Minister; "she won't faint after that;”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“Indeed, in many respects, she was quite English, and was an excellent example of the fact that we have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“Wishing to make an effective entrance, he flung it wide open, when a heavy jug of water fell right down on him, wetting him to the skin, and just missing his left shoulder by a couple of inches. At the same moment he heard stifled shrieks of laughter proceeding from the four-post bed.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“The next morning, when the Otis family met at breakfast, they discussed the ghost at some length. The United States Minister was naturally a little annoyed to find that his present had not been accepted. “I have no wish,” he said, “to do the ghost any personal injury, and I must say that, considering the length of time he has been in the house, I don’t think it is at all polite to throw pillows at him”—a very just remark, at which, I am sorry to say, the twins burst into shouts of laughter. “Upon the other hand,” he continued, “if he really declines to use the Rising Sun Lubricator, we shall have to take his chains from him. It would be quite impossible to sleep, with such a noise going on outside the bedrooms.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“There was evidently no time to be lost, so, hastily adopting the Fourth dimension of Space as a means of escape, he vanished through the wainscoting, and the house became quite quiet.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

“Además, olvida usted, señor Otis, que el precio que pagó incluía tanto el castillo como el fantasma...”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Canterville Ghost

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