Funny Quotes by Oscar Wilde

A Woman of No Importance, Act III; Lord Illingworth answers Gerald’s question about love with the romance/self-deception epigram. The exact catalog wording is supported by this play, not by The Picture of Dorian Gray.

An Ideal Husband, Act III; Lord Goring tells Phipps “The only possible society is oneself” immediately before the lifelong-romance epigram. Verified against the public-domain Wikisource Act III transcription and Project Gutenberg #885; the line remains dandyish comic character speech rather than uncomplicated authorial doctrine.

An Ideal Husband, Act III; Lord Goring tells Phipps that “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance” immediately after saying that the only possible society is oneself. Verified against the public-domain Wikisource Act III transcription and Project Gutenberg #885. This remains comic fictional dialogue in Wilde’s social comedy rather than a psychological finding.

An Ideal Husband, Act I; Mrs. Cheveley—not Lord Goring—answers Sir Robert Chiltern’s question “You prefer to be natural?” with “Sometimes. But it is such a very difficult pose to keep up.” Verified against the public-domain Wikisource Act I transcription and Project Gutenberg #885.

An Ideal Husband, Act I; Lord Goring answers his father, Lord Caversham, “I love talking about nothing, father. It is the only thing I know anything about.” Verified against the public-domain Wikisource Act I transcription and Project Gutenberg #885; this is comic fictional dialogue in their exchange about London society.

Lady Windermere’s Fan.

Lady Windermere’s Fan; a characteristic Wildean epigram linking experience and mistakes.

Lady Windermere’s Fan.

“Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young,” first published in The Chameleon in 1894.

The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I; Algernon Moncrieff. Exact catalog wording is preserved in the scan-backed Samuel French acting text on Wikisource, scan leaf 14 / printed page 12. The acting-text witness is abridged elsewhere, so this record is bound only to its independently verified page.

The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I; Jack Worthing. Exact catalog wording is preserved in the scan-backed Samuel French acting text on Wikisource, scan leaf 26 / printed page 24.

The Importance of Being Earnest, Act II; Miss Prism. Project Gutenberg #844 preserves the exact line in the complete Act II text. The Samuel French acting-text witness represented elsewhere on this source hub omits this Cecily / Miss Prism happy-ending exchange, so this record deliberately uses the complete-text witness rather than a guessed scan page.

The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I; Lady Bracknell. Exact catalog wording is preserved in the scan-backed Samuel French acting text on Wikisource, scan leaf 24 / printed page 22, during her interrogation of Jack Worthing about his parentage.

The Importance of Being Earnest, Act II; Cecily Cardew. Project Gutenberg #844 preserves the exact line in the complete Act II text. The Samuel French acting-text witness represented elsewhere on this source hub omits this Cecily / Miss Prism happy-ending exchange, so this record deliberately uses the complete-text witness rather than a guessed scan page.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890 Lippincott magazine text, Chapter 2; Lord Henry states the temptation paradox while influencing Dorian in Basil Hallward’s garden.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890 Lippincott magazine text, Chapter 3; Lord Henry gives the price-and-value epigram after describing a bargain for old brocade.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890 Lippincott magazine text, Chapter 1; Lord Henry gives the reputation paradox while discussing Basil Hallward’s portrait.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 edition, Preface; the final aphorism of Wilde’s aesthetic manifesto.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 edition, Preface; one of Wilde’s epigrams about art and books.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 edition, Preface; immediately follows the statement rejecting moral and immoral categories for books.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 edition, Chapter 4; third-person narration focalized through Lord Henry reflects that experience is the name people give to their mistakes.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 edition, Chapter 1; Lord Henry tells Basil that he likes persons better than principles and extends the joke to people with no principles.