TIOBE - Love and Marriage Quotes

A married man is never attractive except to his wife. (P)

And often, I've been told, not even to her. (Ch)

I do not approve of mercenary marriages. When I married Lord Bracknell, I had no fortune of any kind...

But I never dreamed for a moment of allowing that to stand in my way (Lady B)

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 (Algy)

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.

What wonderfully blue eyes you have,

Ernest!

Girls never marry the men they flirt with.

Girls don't think it right.

I have often observed that in married households the champagne is rarely of a first-rate brand. (Lane)

Good heavens! Is marriage so demoralising as that? (Algy)

I thought you had come up for pleasure?...

I call that business (Algy)

What an impetuous boy he is!

I like his hair so much (C)

I hope, Cecily, I shall not offend you if I state quite frankly and openly that you seem to me to be in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection. (A)

I think your frankness does you great credit, Ernest. (C)

Were I fortunate to be Miss Prism's pupil...

I would hang upon her lips (Chasuble)

Were I fortunate enough to be Miss Prism's pupil,

I would hang upon her lips. I spoke metaphorically - my metaphor was drawn from bees.

Pardon me, you are not engaged to anyone. When you do become engaged to someone,

I, or your father, should his health permit him, will inform you of the fact.

When you do become engaged to someone...

I, or your father... will inform you of the fact (LB)

The very essence of romance is uncertainty.

If I ever get married, I'll certainly try to forget the fact.

My dear fellow, the way you flirt with Gwendolen is perfectly disgraceful.

It is almost as bad as the way Gwendolen flirts with you.

You do not seem to realise, dear Doctor, that by persistently remaining single, a man converts himself into a permanent public temptation.

Men should be more careful; this very celibacy leads weaker vessels astray. (P)

I am glad to hear it. A man should always have an occupation of some kind.

There are far too many idle men in London as it is.

My ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Ernest...

There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence (Gwen)

Miss Prism says that all good looks are a snare. (C)

They are a snare that every sensible man would like to be caught in. (A)

I was nearly offering a very large reward. (Jack)

Well, I wish you would offer one. I happen to be more than usually hard up.

He has nothing, but he looks everything.

What more can one desire? (LB)

How absurd to talk of the equality of the sexes!

Where questions of self-sacrifice are concerned, men are infinitely beyond us! (Gwen)

You should get married...

a misanthrope, I can understand - a womanthrope, never! (Miss Prism to Chasuble)

The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty...

and to someone else if she is plain

I do not know whether there is anything peculiarly exciting in the air of this particular part of Hertfordshire,

but the number of engagements that go on seems to be considerably above the proper average that statistics have laid down for our guidance. (LB)

You are like a pink rose,

cousin Cecily.

I never change...

except in my affections (Gwen)

No married man is ever attractive...

except to his wife (Prism)

The home seems to me to be the proper sphere for the man. And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties...

he becomes painful effeminate, does he not?

The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad...

it is simply washing one's clean linen in public (Algy - epigram)

Divorces are...

made in Heaven (Algy - epigram)

A gross deception has been

practised on both of us! (C)

I never saw a woman so altered...

she looks quite twenty years younger (Lady B about a woman who's husband has died)

I have always been of the opinion that a man who desires to get married

should either know everything or nothing. Which do you know?

They [good looks] are a snare...

that every sensible man would like to be caught in (Algy)

I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people...

the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which I think is never advisable (Lady B)

In married life...

three is company and two is none (Algy - epigram)

You don't seem to realise, that in married life

three is company and two is none.

Unmarried! I do not deny that is a serious blow. But after all,

who has the right to cast a stone against one who has suffered? Cannot repentance wipe out an act of folly? (J)