“Lord Illingworth: Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.”

— Oscar Wilde , A Woman of No Importance

Act II
A Woman of No Importance (1893)

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Irish writer and poet 1854–1900

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“Restlessness is discontent — and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man — and I will show you a failure.”

Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman

The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison (1948), p. 110.
Date unknown

“Lord Illingworth: The Book of Life begins with a man and a woman in a garden.
Mrs. Allonby: It ends with Revelations.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Act I
A Woman of No Importance (1893)

“MRS ALLONBY Is she such a mystery?
LORD ILLINGWORTH She is more than a mystery - she is a mood.
MRS ALLONBY Moods don't last.
LORD ILLINGWORTH It is their chief charm.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Source: A Woman of No Importance

“Kelvil: May I ask, Lord Illingworth, if you regard the House of Lords as a better institution than the House of Commons?
Lord Illingworth: A much better institution of course. We in the House of Lords are never in touch with public opinion. That makes us a civilised body.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Act I
A Woman of No Importance (1893)

“Lord Illingworth: Women have become too brilliant. Nothing spoils a romance so much as a sense of humour in the woman.
Mrs. Allonby: Or the want of it in the man.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Act I http://books.google.com/books?id=RHkWAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Women+have+become+too+brilliant+Nothing+spoils+a+romance+so+much+as+a+sense+of+humour+in+the+woman%22+%22or+the+want+of+it+in+the+man%22&pg=PA34#v=onepage
A Woman of No Importance (1893)

“Gerald: I suppose society is wonderfully delightful?
Lord Illingworth: To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it simply a tragedy.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Act III
A Woman of No Importance (1893)

“Lady Hunstanton: But do you believe all that is written in the newspapers?
Lord Illingworth: I do. Nowadays it is only the unreadable that occurs.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Act I
A Woman of No Importance (1893)

“LORD ILLINGWORTH: The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life.
MRS ALLONBY: And the body is born young and grows old. That is life's tragedy.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Source: A Woman of No Importance

“Renunciation (Zuhd) is a noble station and it is the basis of all spiritual progress. It is the first step on the way to God. Without renunciation one cannot hope to make progress in this respect.”

Abu Nasr as-Sarraj

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 82

“For to be discontented with the divine discontent, and to be ashamed with the noble shame, is the very germ and first upgrowth of all virtue.”

Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) English clergyman, historian and novelist

Health and Education http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17437/17437-h/17437-h.htm, The Science of Health (1874).

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