Oscar Wilde: Trending quotes

Gwendolen, Act III.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Variant: If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.

Variant: I wish you would tell me your secret. To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Mrs Chevely, Act I
An Ideal Husband (1895)

Lord Illingworth, Act III.
A Woman of No Importance (1893)
Variant: Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious. Both are disappointed.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Variant: Often quoted as: Life is far too important to be taken seriously.
Variant: Often quoted as: Life is too important to be taken seriously.
Variant: Often quoted as: Life is too important to take seriously.
Source: Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Lord Darlington, Act I

This also appears in Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Act II
The Critic as Artist (1891), Part II

Variant: If there is anything more annoying in the world than having people talk about you, it is certainly having no one talk about you.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Lord Darlington, Act I
Variant: I can resist everything except temptation
Source: Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)

A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated (1894)

Source: The Canterville Ghost http://www.planetmonk.com/wilde/savile/canterville.c1.html (1887)

Mr. Dumby, Act III. <br class="br">Vera; or, The Nihilists (1880) <br class="br">Variant: Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes. <br class="br">Variant: Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. <br class="br">Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray <br class="br">Context: Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. [First used by Wilde in Vera; or, The Nihilists http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera;_or,_The_Nihilists. ]

Source: Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories