Quote collection
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"Even men of the noblest possible moral character are extremely susceptible to the influence of the physical charms of others. Modern, no less then Ancient History, supplies us with many most painful examples of what I refer to. If it were not so, indeed, History would be quite unreadable."
"Imitation is the homage mediocrity pays to greatness."
"I love hearing my relations abused. It is the only thing that makes me put up with them at all."
"Yes, I am a thorough republican. No other form of government is so favorable to the growth of art. ...because of the importance it places on the individual, their liberty, self-expression, creativity, and personal responsibility."
"In all unimportant matters, style, not sincerity, is the essential. In all important matters, style, not sincerity, is the essential."
"The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible."
"It is a very dangerous thing to know one’s friends."
"Mothers, of course, are all right. They pay a chap's bills and don't bother him. But fathers bother a chap and never pay his bills."
"They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty."
"Tell the cook of this restaurant with my compliments that these are the very worst sandwiches in the whole world, and that, when I ask for a watercress sandwich, I do not mean a loaf with a field in the middle of it."
"The birds did not understand a single word of what he was saying, but that made no matter, for they put their heads on one side, and looked wise, which is quite as good as understanding a thing, and very much easier."
"Out of the sea will rise Behemoth and Leviathan, and sail 'round the high-pooped galleys... Dragons will wander about the waste places, and the phoenix will soar from her nest of fire into the air. We shall lay our hands upon the basilisk, and see the jewel in the toad's head. Champing his gilded oats, the Hippogriff will stand in our stalls, and over our heads will float the Blue Bird singing of beautiful and impossible things, of things that are lovely and that never happen, of things that are not and that should be."
"Her love was trembling in laughter on her lips."
"Lord Darlington (LD): I think life too complex a thing to be settled by these hard and fast rules. Lady Windemere (LW): If we had 'hard-and-fast rules' we would find life much simpler. LD: You allow of no exceptions? LW: None! LD: Ah, what a fascinating Puritan you are, LW. LW: The adjective was unnecessary, LD."
"Dullness is the coming of age of seriousness."
"As for modern journalism, it is not my business to defend it. It justifies its own existence by the great Darwinian principle of the survival of the vulgarest."
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. We all have clouds above us but some see their silver linings. We all face difficulties but some of us are grateful that they aren't worse."
"You can fake intelligence, but you can't fake wit."
"History is only gossip."
"The things one feels absolutely certain about are never true. That is the fatality of faith, and the lesson of romance."