Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

There are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely-or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands.

Man is a being with myriad lives and myriad sensations, a complex, multiform creature that bears within itself strange legacies of thought and passion, and whose very flesh is tainted with the monstrous maladies of the dead.

And now, dear Mr. Worthing, I will not intrude any longer into a house of sorrow. I would merely beg you not to be too much bowed down by grief. What seem to us bitter trials are often blessings in disguise. This seems to me a blessing of an extremely obvious kind.

Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing.

As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied.

The Roman Catholic Church is for saints and sinners alone - for respectable people, the Anglican Church will do.