“Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.”

“Life is too important to be taken seriously.”

“Some things are too important to be taken seriously.”

“I love scrapes. They are the only things that are never serious.""Oh, that's nonsense, Algy. You never talk anything but nonsense.""Nobody ever does.”

“You should treat the trivial things in life seriously and the serious things in life with a sincere and studied triviality”

“We should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.”

“What odd chaps you painters are! You do anything in the world to gain a reputation. As soon as you have one, you seem to want to throw it away. It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. A portrait like this would set you far above all the young men in England, and make the old men jealous, if old men are ever capable of any emotion.”