“I never change.MRS. CHEVELEY: (elevating her eyebrows) Then life has taught you nothing?LADY CHILTERN: It has taught me that a person who has once been guilty of a dishonest and dishonorable action may be guilty of it a second time, and should be shunned.MRS. CHEVELEY: Whould that rule apply to everyone?LADY CHILTERN: Yes, to everyone, without exception.MRS. CHEVELEY: Then I am sorry for you, Gertrude, very sorry for you.”
“If people are dishonest once, they will be dishonest a second time. And honest people should keep away from them. (Lady Chiltern)”
“LADY BRACKNELLI had some crumpets with Lady Harbury, who seems to me to be living entirely for pleasure now.ALGERNONI hear her hair has turned quite gold from grief.”
“LADY BRACKNELLAlgernon is an extremely, I may almost say an ostentatiously, eligible young man. He has nothing, but he looks everything. What more can one desire?”
“A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave.”
“I am less to you than your ivory Hermes or your silver Faun. You will like them always. How long will you like me? Till I have my first wrinkle, I suppose. I know, now, that when one loses one's good looks, whatever they may be, one loses everything. Your picture has taught me that. Lord Henry Wotton is perfectly right. Youth is the only thing worth having. When I find that I am growing old, I shall kill myself.”
“LADY BRACKNELLThirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years. Lady Dumbleton is an instance in point. To my own knowledge she has been thirty-five ever since she arrived at the age of forty, which was many years ago now.”