“Lady Chiltern is a woman of the very highest principles, I am glad to say. I am a little too old now, myself, to trouble about setting a good example, but I always admire people who do.”

“Do you know, [Lady Chiltern], I don’t mind your talking morality a bit. Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.”

“[Lady Chiltern] does not know what weakness or temptation is. I am of clay like other men. She stands apart as good women do—pitiless in her perfection—cold and stern and without mercy.”

“Lady Chiltern, you are a sensible woman, the most sensible woman in London, the most sensible woman I know.”