The Importance of Being Earnest, Finish that Quote Flashcards
“… anyone can play accurately - but I play with wonderful expression…”
“As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for life.”
- Algernon Act 1
“I have often observed in married households the champagne is rarely of the first-rate brand.”
- Lane
…
“Good Heavens! Is marriage so demoralising as that?”
- Algernon Act 1
“Lane’s views on marriage seem rather lax. Really if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them?…”
“They seem, as a class, to have no sense of moral responsibility.”
- Algernon
“When one is in town one amuses oneself…”
“When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring .”
- Jack Act 1
“I thought you had come up for pleasure?…”
“I call that business.”
- Algernon Act 1
“I really don;t see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal…”
“…The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If I ever get married, I’ll certainly try to forget the fact.”
- Algernon Act 1
“You have always told me it was Ernest. I have introduced you as Ernest. You look as if your name was Ernest…”
“You are the most earnest-looking person I have ever saw in my life.”
- Algernon Act 1
“The truth is rarely…”
“pure and never simple.”
- Algernon Act 1
“Well, I must say, Algernon, that I think it is high time that Mr Bunbury made up his mind…”
“whether he is going to live or die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd.”
- Lady Bracknell Act 1
“French songs I cannot quite possibly allow…”
“People always seem to think that they are improper, and either look shocked, which is vulgar, or laugh, which is worse. But German sounds a thoroughly respectable language.”
- Lady Bracknell Act 1
“We live, as I hope you know, Mr Worthing, in an age of ideals…”
“The fact is constantly mentioned in the more expensive monthly magazines, and has reached the provisional pulpits I am told.”
- Gwendolen Act 1
“An ideal of mine has always been to love someone of the name Ernest…”
“There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence. The moment algernon first mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you.”
- Gwendolen Act 1
“To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune…”
“To lose both looks like carelessness.”
- Lady Bracknell Act 1
“Mr Worthing …. to be born, or at any rate bred, in a hand-bag seems to me to display a contempt for the…”
“ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution.”
- Lady Bracknell Act 1.
“I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays. You can’t go anywhere without meeting clever people…”
“The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left.”
- Jack Act 1
“The story of your romantic origin, as relayed to me by my mamma, with unpleasing comments…”
“has naturally stirred the deeper fibres of my nature.”
- Gwendolen Act 1
“But I don’t like German…”
“It isn’t at all a becoming language. I know perfectly well that I look perfectly plain after my German lesson.”
- Cecily Act 2
“Dear Uncle Jack is so very serious…”
“Sometimes he is so serious that I think that he can’t be quite well.”
- Cecily Act 2
“I have never met any really wicked person before…”
“I feel rather frightened. I am so afraid that he will look like everyone else.”
- Cecily Act 2
“If you are not, then you have certainly been deceiving us all in a very inexcusable manner…”
“I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.”
- Cecily Act 2
Enter Jack… he is dressed in the
deepest mourning, with crepe hatband and black gloves
“My duty as a gentlemen…”
“has never interfered with my pleasures in the smallest degree.”
- Algernon Act 2
{ Cecily’s diary }
“You see, it’s really just a young girl’s record of her own thoughts and impressions…”
“and consequently meant for publication. When it appears in volume form I hope you’ll buy a copy.”
- Cecily Act 2
“Cecily Cardew? What a sweet name! Something tells me…”
“that we are going to be great friends. I like you already more than I can say. My first impressions of people are never wrong.”
- Gwedolen Act 2
“How secretive of him!…”
“He grows more interesting hourly.”
- Gwendolen Act 2
“Do you suggest, Miss Fairfax, that I entrapped Mr Worthing into an engagement? How dare you?…”
“This is no time for wearing the shallow mask of manner. When I see a spade I call it a spade.”
- Cecily Act 2
The presence of the servants creates a …
restraining influence, under which both girls chafe
“Bread and butter please. Cake is…”
“rarely seen at the best households nowadays.”
- Gwendolen Act 2
“From the moment I saw you I distrusted you…”
“I felt you were false and deceitful. I am never deceived in such matters. My first impressions of people are invariably right.”
- Gwendolen Act 2
“…It is very painful for me…”
“to be forced to speak the truth. It is the first time in my life that I have ever been reduced to such a painful position.”
- Jack Act 2
“Yes, and a perfectly wonderful Bunbury it is…”
“The most wonderful bunbury I’ve ever had in my life.”
- Algernon Act 2
“Well I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner…”
“The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them.”
- Algernon Act 2
“Cecily, ever since I first looked upon your wonderful and incomparable beauty I have dared to…”
“love you wildly, passionately, devotedly, hopelessly.”
- Algernon Act 2
“You silly boy! Of course…”
“Why, we have been engaged for the last three months!”
- Cecily Act 2
“Ernest has a very strong and upright nature. He is the very soul of truth and honour…”
“Disloyalty would be as impossible to him as deception.”
-Gwendolen Act 2
“True. In matters of grave importance…”
“style not sincerity is the vital thing.”
- Gwendolen Act 3
“Exploded! Was he the victim of a revolutionary outrage? I was not aware that Mr.Bunbury was interested in social legislation…”
“If so, he is well punished for his morbidity.”
- Lady Bracknell Act 3
“A moment, Mr Worthing. A hundred and thirty thousand pounds! And in the funds!…”
“Miss Cardew seems to me a most attractive young lady, now that I look at her.”
- Lady Bracknell Act 3
“We live, I regret to say…”
“in an age of surfaces.”
- Lady Bracknell Act 3
“Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that…”
“all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?”
- Jack Act 3
