Curious Statements

p. 110, marriage is the consequence of a misunderstanding

p. 110, the lower orders are supposed to set a good example for the upper class; the lower orders have no moral responsibility.

p. 112, divorces are made in Heaven.

p. 113, More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn’t read.

p. 116, in order to be a guardian, one has to adopt a high moral tone, but a high moral tone is not conducive to either health or happiness.

p. 116, the truth is rarely pure and never simple.  Modern life would be tedious it it were either.

p. 117, the amount of women who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous.

p. 118, Three is company, and two is none.

p. 118, I hate people who are not serious about meals.  It is so shallow of them.

p.122, my ideal has always been to love someone by the name of Ernest.  There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence. [p. 151]

p. 124, An engagement is hardly a matter that a young woman can be allowed to arrange for herself.

p. 125, The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound [ignorance is good],  Fortunately, in England education produces no effect.

p. 125-126, a girl with a simple, unspoiled nature like Gwendolen could hardly be expected to reside in the country.

p. 126, the truth is that my parents lost me.

p. 127, to be born in a hand-bag seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life and reminds me of the worst excesses of the French Revolution.

p. 129, All women become like their mothers.  That is their tragedy.  No man does.  That’s his [tragedy].

p. 129, the truth isn’t the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl.

p. 131, it’s awfully hard work doing nothing.

p. 133, I love scrapes.  They are the only things that never are serious.

p. 134, intellectual pleasure, German grammar?

p. 135, I am not in favor of the modern mania for turning bad people into good people

p. 135, happy endings are depressing

p. 138, you should be proud of having been so bad

p. 141, death—I trust he will profit by it.

p. 142, a charity sermon to raise funds for the Prevention of Discontentment Among the Upper Orders

p. 149, a wicked and bad younger brother—I fell in love with you, Ernest.  Engaged on February 14, wrote three times a week to herself

p. 153, the home is the proper sphere for a man

p. 153, I was brought up to be extremely shortsighted.

p. 160, it is XXXX painful for me to be forced to speak the truth.  It is the first time I have ever been reduced to such a painful position.

p. 164, they have been eating muffins.  That looks like repentance.

p. 165, although a false statement, but that does not affect the beauty of his answer.

p. 165, in matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.

p. 166, men are better at self-sacrifice than women

p. 167, a wife should never undeceive her husband

p. 168, Kack originated in a terminus

p. 169, money makes one attractive

p. 171, long engagements are bad because they give people the opportunity of finding out about each other’s character before marriage.

p. 171, He has nothing, but he looks everything.

p. 173, I am not punctual, I know, but I do like punctuality in others, and waiting, even to be married, is quite out of the question.

p. 176, I need hardly tell you  that in families of high position strange coincidences are not supposed to occur.

p. 176, I dislike arguments of any kind.  They are always vulgar, and often convincing.

p. 178 I hate to seem inquisitive, but would you kindly inform me who I am.

p. 179, It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth.  Can you forgive me.

p. 180, I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.