Wilde Quotes

[the love of older men for younger men:]

Oscar Wilde: The love that dare not speak its name.

Oscar Wilde: [last lines]

Oscar Wilde: In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants. The other is getting it.

Marquess of Queensberry: [very drunk] Where d'you stand on cremation?

Oscar Wilde: I'm not sure I have a position.

Marquess of Queensberry: I'm for it. I wrote a poem about it. 'When I am dead, cremate me.' That's how it starts. 'When... I am dead... cremate me'. Whaddya think of that for an opening line?

Oscar Wilde: It's... challenging.

Edward Carson: In this poem by Lord Alfred Douglas, 'Two Loves', there is one love, true love, which, and I quote 'fills the hearts of boy and girl with mutual flame.' And there is another: 'I am the love that dare not speak its name.' Was that poem explained to you?

Oscar Wilde: I think it's clear.

Edward Carson: There's no question as to what it means?

Oscar Wilde: Most certainly not.

Edward Carson: So, is it not clear that the love describe relates to natural and unnatural love?

Oscar Wilde: No.

Edward Carson: Oh. Then what is 'the love that dare not speak its name?'

Oscar Wilde: [after a long pause] 'The love that dare not speak its name', in this century, is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Johnathan. Such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you may find in the sonnets of Michelangelo or Shakespeare. It is, in this century, misunderstood. So much misunderstood that it may be described as 'the love that dare not speak its name', and on account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful. It is fine. It is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual. And it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man when the elder has intellect and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him. That it should be so, the world does not understand. The world mocks at it and sometimes puts someone in the pillory for it.

[after a beat, Robbie Ross and another man begin to applaud, as the other spectators boo and jeer]

Constance Lloyd Wilde: If I'd only spoken up...

Robbie Ross: It wouldn't have made any difference.

Constance Lloyd Wilde: Perhaps not. But at least I wouldn't blame myself now.

Lady Speranza Wilde: You're an Irish Gentleman. Of course you'll be staying. Your father fought when he was libeled. I was in the courts myself. I fought...

Oscar Wilde: Yes, I know, Mother.

Lady Speranza Wilde: You'll fight these English philistines and you'll win! And even if you lose, if you go to prison, you'll always be my son.

Oscar Wilde: Well, of course, it's too late to change that now.

Lady Speranza Wilde: If you go, Oscar, I'll never speak to you again.

Oscar Wilde: No one will ever speak to me again whatever I do. Of course I'm your son, which is why, even if I lose, the English will never forget me.

Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas: [in the prison visitors room] Oscar, you must let me in the witness box! If the jury can only hear what I have to say...

Oscar Wilde: Bosie, darling boy, as soon as they see you in all your golden youth and me in all my corruption...

Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas: You didn't corrupt me! I corrupted you, if anything!

Oscar Wilde: That's not how it will seem.

Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas: But I must have my say! It's outrageous! Everyone else has said everything, anything that came into his head! I'm the person all this is about! It's me my father wants to get at, not you! It's outrageous that I can't have my say!

Oscar Wilde: It won't help, Bosie. It may actually make things worse.

Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas: But my father will win! I can't endure my father winning.

Oscar Wilde: You must go away, dear boy. I couldn't bear for them to arrest you.

Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas: I can't bear what they're saying about you in court.

[the bell rings for visitors to leave]

Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas: Jesus Christ!

[He grabs for Oscar's hand through the mesh window]

Oscar Wilde: Goodbye Bosie, dear boy. Don't let anyone, anything, ever change your feeling for me, change your love.

Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas: Oscar, never! They never will! I won't let them! I won't let them!

Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas: [Oscar is ill in bed] You look such an idiot lying there. Revolting. Have you forgotten how to wash?

Oscar Wilde: As a matter of fact, I'm dying for a glass of water.

Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas: Well, help yourself. You know where the jug is.

Oscar Wilde: Bosie, darling...

Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas: It stinks in here. You'll be wanting me to empty your chamber pot next.

Oscar Wilde: Well, I emptied your chamber pot... I looked after you...

Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas: Well, I'm not looking after you. Not now. You don't interest me, not when you're ill. You're just a boring, middle-aged man with a blocked-up nose.

Oscar Wilde: Bosie, dearest boy...

Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas: SHUT UP! Dearest boy! Darling Bosie! It doesn't mean anything! You don't love me! The only person you've ever loved is yourself. You like me, you lust after me, you go about with me because I've got a title. That's all. You like to write about Dukes and Duchesses, but you know nothing about them. You're the biggest snob I've ever met, and you think you're so daring because you fuck the occasional boy.

Oscar Wilde: Bosie, please... You're killing me...

Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas: You just about do when you're at your best. You're amusing, very amusing, but when you're not at your best, you're no one!

Oscar Wilde: All I asked for was a glass of water...

John Gray: I'm not good enough for him anymore. I'm just the son of a carpenter, while Bosie...

Robbie Ross: Oscar's only ever been smitten before. He was smitten with me. He was smitten with you...

John Gray: I wasn't smitten.

[long pause]

John Gray: I loved him.

Robbie Ross: Well, now he's fallen in love.

John Gray: I'm halfway to hellfire and I'm not joking.

Robbie Ross: Someone else was a carpenter's son.

[John looks at Robbie, confused]

Robbie Ross: I've given in and become a Catholic. I find Confession wonderfully consoling.

John Gray: I can't go to Confession when I want to kill Bosie... and myself...

Oscar Wilde: Robbie is Canadian. You can tell by his youth.

Ada: Have you been brought to England to mature, Mr. Ross?

Robbie Ross: That was the idea. But it doesn't seem to be working. I've lived here since I was three and you see the pitiful result.

Oscar Wilde: Robbie comes from a long line of imperial governors. His grandfather was Prime Minister of Upper Canada. Or was it Lower Canada? The British take their class system wherever they go. They apply it even to continents.

Ada: Are you planning to govern a continent?

Robbie Ross: Oh, no. I don't even plan to govern myself.