“Nowadays we are all of us so hard up that the only pleasant things to pay are compliments. They're the only things we can pay.”

— Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

Lord Darlington, Act I
Source: Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Nowadays we are all of us so hard up that the only pleasant things to pay are compliments. They're the only things we c…" by Oscar Wilde?

Oscar Wilde photo

Oscar Wilde812

Irish writer and poet 1854–1900

Related quotes

“You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him.”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) Roman Catholic saint

“We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to them.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

“We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”

Leona Helmsley (1920–2007) American hotel owner

Quoted in New York Times (July 12, 1989)
Quoted in Newsweek magazine, p. 11 (July 24, 1989)

“Somebody's paying the corporations that destroyed Iraq and the corporations that are rebuilding it. They're getting paid by the American taxpayer in both cases. So we pay them to destroy the country, and then we pay them to rebuild it.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Interview by David Barsamian on Alternative Radio, September 11, 2003 http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Imperialism_Neocolonialism/TellTruthImperialism_Chom.html. <br class="br">Quotes 2000s, 2003

“During the war we had to stop producing the everyday things which we need in peacetime. We had to concentrate on war production and the bare necessities of existence. The natural result is that to-day we are short of the things which we need. … You may ask why cannot we get what we want from abroad? The answer is that we can only get it if we can pay for it. Before the war many of the things which we got from abroad—food and raw material—were paid for by the interest on foreign investments, and by services rendered by us to people in other countries. During the war we had to sell our foreign investments to pay for the arms, food, and other things we needed. Apart from any temporary relief we may get by loans from our friends across the Atlantic, we can only buy from abroad now if we can pay by exporting goods or rendering services.”

Clement Attlee (1883–1967) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Broadcast (3 March 1946), quoted in The Times (4 March 1946), p. 4
Prime Minister

“Pay attention to how we move things”

Fetty Wap (1991) American rapper and singer from New Jersey

"How We Do Things" (feat. Monty)

“Taxes are not good things, but if you want services, somebody's got to pay for them so they're a necessary evil.”

Michael Bloomberg (1942) American businessman and politician, former mayor of New York City

http://www.woopidoo.com/business_quotes/authors/michael-bloomberg-quotes.htm
Taxes

“Time works so hard for us, if only we can let it.”

Tana French book The Likeness

Source: The Likeness

“To pay compliments to the one we love is the first method of caressing, a demi-audacity venturing. A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“There are three things that none of the young men of the present generation can do. They can't sit over their wine; they can't play at wist; and they can't pay a lady a compliment.”

Wilkie Collins book The Woman in White

Source: The Woman in White

Related topics