Miss Prism: Do not speak slightingly of the three-volume novel, Cecily. I wrote one myself in earlier days. Cecily: Did you really, Miss Prism? How wonderfully clever you are! I hope it did not end happily? I don't like novels that end happily. They depress me so much. Miss Prism: The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

When asked what he thought of sports, Oscar Wilde replied, "I approve of any activity that requires the wearing of special clothing.

It is not wise to find symbols in everything that one sees. It makes life too full of terrors.

The gods have been good to you. But what the gods give they quickly take away. You have only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make more bitter than defeats. Every month as it wanes bring you nearer to something dreadful. Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses.

Who am I to tamper with a masterpiece?

Nothing is so aggravating than calmness.