“Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.”
Lady Bracknell, Act I.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays
Context: I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Oscar Wilde 812
Irish writer and poet 1854–1900Related quotes

“The craving for a delicate fruit is pleasanter than the fruit itself.”
Der Appetit nach einer schönen Frucht ist angenehmer als die Frucht selbst.
Christoph Martin Wieland (ed.) Der deutsche Merkur vol. 20 (1781) p. 214; cited from Bernhard Suphan (ed.) Herders sämmtliche Werke (Berlin Weidmann, 1888) vol. 15, p. 307. Translation from Maturin M. Ballou Pearls of Thought (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1881) p. 13

“In plucking the fruit of memory one runs the risk of spoiling its bloom.”
The Arrow of Gold http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/argld10h.htm (1919), Author's note,

“Programming with libxml2 is like the thrilling embrace of an exotic stranger.”
Dive Into Mark http://web.archive.org/web/20110902041836/http://diveintomark.org/archives/2004/02/18/libxml2, Wednesday, February 18, 2004.

Song lyrics, Our Time In Eden (1992), These Are Days

“Tis the last rose of Summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone.”
The Last Rose of Summer, st. 1.
Irish Melodies http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html (1807–1834)