Page:Wilde - A Woman of no Importance, 1909.djvu/144

RhACT III. KELVIL The secret of life is to resist temptation, Lady Stutfield.

LORD ILLINGWORTH There is no secret of life. Life's aim, if it has one, is simply to be always looking for temptations. There are not nearly enough. I sometimes pass a whole day without coming across a single one. It is quite dreadful. It makes one so nervous about the future.

LADY HUNSTANTON [Shakes her fan at him.] I don't know how it is, dear Lord Illingworth, but everything you have said to-day seems to me excessively immoral. It has been most interesting, listening to you.

LORD ILLINGWORTH All thought is immoral. Its very essence is destruction. If you think of anything, you kill it. Nothing survives being thought of. 126