An Ideal Husband Quotes

“Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear.
Just as vulgarity is simply the conduct of other people.
And falsehoods the truths of other people.
Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.
To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.”
― Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“Never mind what I say. I am always saying what I shouldn't say. In fact, I usually say what I really think. A great mistake nowadays. It makes one so liable to be misunderstood.”
― Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“Weak? Oh, I am sick of hearing that phrase. Sick of using it about others. Weak? Do you really think, that it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations that it requires strength, strength and courage, to yield to. To stake all one's life on a single moment, to risk everything on one throw, whether the stake be power or pleasure, I care not-there is no weakness in that. There is a horrible, terrible courage. I had that courage.”
― Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“I love talking about nothing, father. It is the only thing I know anything about.”
― Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“If one listens one may be convinced; and a man who allows himself to be convinced by an argument is a thoroughly unreasonable person”
― Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“My doctor says I must not have any serious conversation after seven [o'clock]. It makes me talk in my sleep.”
― Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“A man's life is of more value than a woman's. It has larger issues, wider scope, greater ambitions. Our lives revolve in curves of emotions. It is upon lines of intellect that a man's life progresses. I have just learnt this, and much else with it, from Lord Goring. And I will not spoil your life for you, nor see you spoil it as a sacrifice to me, a useless sacrifice.”
― Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“The drawback of stealing a thing, is that one never knows how wonderful the thing that one steals is.”
― Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“Do you want to kill his love for you? What sort of existence will he have if you rob him of the fruits of his ambition, if you take him from the splendour of a great political career, if you close the doors of public life against him, if you condemn him to sterile failure, he who was made for triumph and success? Women are not meant to judge us but to forgive us when we need forgiveness. Pardon, not punishment, is their mission. Why should you scourge him with rods for a sin done in his youth, before he knew you, before he knew himself? A man's life is of more value than a woman's. It has larger issues, wider scope, greater ambitions. A women's life revolves around curves of emotions. It is upon lines of intellect that man's life progresses. Don't make any terrible mistake, Lady Chiltern. A woman who can keep a man's love, and love him in return, has done all the world wants of women, or should want of them.”
― Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“He was a man of most subtle and refined intellect. A man of culture, charm, and distinction. One of the most intellectual men I ever met."
"I prefer a gentlemanly fool any day. There is more to be said for stupidity than people imagine. Personally I have a great admiration for stupidity. It is a sort of fellow-feeling, I suppose.”
― Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“I have forgotten all about my school days. I have a vague impression that they were detestable.”
― Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“Indeed, as a rule, everybody turns out to be somebody else.”
― Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“Marriage is a matter for common sense."
"But women who have common sense are so curiously plain, father, aren't they? Of course I only speak from heresay?"
"No woman, plain or pretty, has any common sense at all, sir. Common sense is the privilege of our sex.”
― Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“Ah! that is the great thing in life, to live the truth.”
― Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“No, don’t speak! Say nothing! Your voice wakes terrible memories–memories of things that made me love you–memories of words that made me love you–memories that are now horrible to me […] The world seemed to me finer because you were in it, and goodness more real because you lived.”
― Oscar Wilde

“No, don't speak! Say nothing! Your voice wakes terrible memories - memories of things that made me love you - memories of words that made me love you - memories that now are horrible to me. And how I worshipped you! You were to me something apart from common life, a thing pure, noble, honest, without stain. The world seemed to me finer because you were in it, and goodness more real because you lived. And now - oh, when I think that I made of a man like you my ideal! the ideal of my life!”
― Oscar Wilde