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Marriage Quotes by Oscar Wilde

98 Marriage quotes by Oscar Wilde

All Marriage quotes Oscar Wilde’s page

An engagement is not the same as marriage, a distinction Wilde jokes about while noting that breaking bonds can be a personal act. He mocks the idea that men should know everything or nothing before tying the knot, and he points out how love and practicality often clash in marital decisions.

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“No married man is ever attractive except to his wife.”

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There is nothing so difficult to marry as a large nose.

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Divorces are made in heaven.

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In married life three is company and two none.

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“Because the husband is vile - should the wife be vile also?”

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“The man who says his wife can't take a joke, forgets she took him.”

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No man should have a secret from his wife. She invariably finds it out.

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One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.

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Rich bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others.

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Like dear St. Francis of Assisi I am wedded to Poverty: but in my case the marriage is not a success.

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Marriage is the one subject on which all women agree and all men disagree.

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In marriage, as in war, it is permitted to take every advantage of the enemy.

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“As for marriage, of course that would be silly, but there are other and more interesting bonds between men and women.”

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“What nonsense people talk about happy marriages!" exclaimed Lord Henry. " A man can be happy with any woman, as long as…

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Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.

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London is full of women who trust their husbands. One can always recognize them. They look so thoroughly unhappy.

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“Lady Bracknell: “He was eccentric, I admit. But only in later years. And that was the result of the Indian climate, and…

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Plain women are always jealous of their husbands. Beautiful women never are. They are always so occupied with being jealous of other…

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“Besides, every experience is of value, and whatever one may say against marriage, it is certainly an experience.”

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“Adevarul despre casatorie este acela ca te face sa nu mai fi egoist. Iar oamenii lipsiti de egoism sun incolori. Le lipseste…

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“I believe that you are really a very good husband but that you are thoroughly ashamed of your own virtues. You are…

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Really, this horrid House of Commons quite ruins our husbands for us. I think the Lower House by far the greatest blow…

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I was disappointed in Niagara - most people must be disappointed in Niagara. Every American bride is taken there, and the sight…

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I have been right, Basil, haven’t I, to take my love out of poetry, and to find my wife in Shakespeare’s plays?…

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“But don't you think one can be happy when on is married? Perfectly happy. But the happiness of a married man, my…

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“But she would have soon found out that you were absolutely indifferent to her. And when a woman finds that out about…

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“You seem to forget that I am married, and the one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception…

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Loveless marriages are horrible. But there is one thing worse than an absolutely loveless marriage. A marriage in which there is love,…

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“I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about…

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JACK That is nonsense. If I marry a charming girl like Gwendolen, and she is the only girl I ever saw in…

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Dammit Sir, it's your duty to get married. You can't always be living for pleasure!

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If we men married the women we deserved, we should have a very bad time of it.

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Bigamy ? It's having one wife too much... ...Monogamy ? It's the same.

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“Of course married life is merely a habit, a bad habit.”

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My wife and I no longer have anything in common but our differences.

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The world has grown suspicious of anything that looks like a happy married life.

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The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties.

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“You don't seem to realise, that in married life three is company and two is none.”

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Marriage is a long, dull meal with dessert served at the beginning.

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Nowadays, all the married men live like bachelors, and all the bachelors like married men.

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More by Oscar Wilde

How else but through a broken heart may Lord Christ enter in?

The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.

Bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others

Who, being loved, is poor?

“Basil my dear boy puts everything that is charming in him into his work. The consequence is that he has nothing left for life…

Anybody can be good in the country

I don't at all like knowing what people say of me behind my back. It makes me far too conceited.

“Alles Populäre ist falsch.”

“If these elements of beauty are real, the whole thing simply appeals to our sense of dramatic effect. Suddenly we find that we are…

To love one's self is the beginning of a life-long romance

“Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.”

Men always want to be a womans first love. Women have a more subtle instinct: What they like is to be a mans last…

Why is it that at a bachelor's establishment the servants invariably drink the champagne.

Moderation is a fatal thing. Enough is as bad as a meal. More than enough is as good as a feast.

Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a…