Quote for the Day

I'm making my way through one of my stepfather's two copies of The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (he also has multiples of Shakespeare and Joseph Conrad, and probably a few others). Here's an ever-fresh tidbit from "A Woman of No Importance":

Mrs. Allonby: They say, Lady Hunstanton, that when good Americans die, they go to Paris.

Lady Hunstanton: Indeed? And when bad Americans die, where do they go to?

Lord Illingworth: Oh, they go to America.

Kelvil: I am afraid you don't appreciate America, Lord Illingworth. It is a very remarkable country, especially considering its youth.

Lord Illingworth: The youth of America is their oldest tradition. It has been going on now for three hundred years. To hear them talk one would imagine they were in their first childhood. As far as civilisation goes they are in their second.