4 quotations linked to An Ideal Husband by or associated with Oscar Wilde, with source notes, explanations and related topics.
Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.
“The only possible society is oneself.”
The comic exaggeration makes self-company part of Wilde’s joke about society while still centering comfort with oneself.
Source note: An Ideal Husband, Act III, spoken by Lord Goring immediately before the lifelong-romance line.
“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”
The line playfully treats self-acceptance not as a one-time achievement but as a relationship that lasts throughout life.
Source note: An Ideal Husband, Act 3; Lord Goring delivers the lifelong-romance epigram in Wilde’s social comedy, where self-regard is framed through deliberate wit.
“To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.”
The paradox mocks social performance: even “being natural” can become a carefully maintained pose when people are conscious of appearances.
Source note: An Ideal Husband; Lord Goring turns naturalness itself into a social pose.
“I love talking about nothing, father. It is the only thing I know anything about.”
The line makes conversation comic by combining cheerful self-deprecation with a claim of expertise in precisely nothing.
Source note: An Ideal Husband; Lord Goring jokes with his father about the subjects he is qualified to discuss.