The Canterville Ghost Quotes

“Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“Yes, death. Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow. To forget time, to forget life, to be at peace. You can help me. You can open for me the portals of death's house, for love is always with you, and love is stronger than death is.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“He made me see what Life is, and what Death signifies, and why Love is stronger than both.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“You can have your secret as long as I have your heart[.]”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“When a golden girl can win
Prayer from out the lips of sin,
When the barren almond bears,
And a little child gives away its tears,
Then shall all the house be still
And peace come to Canterville.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“Far away beyond the pine-woods,' he answered, in a low dreamy voice, 'there is a little garden. There the grass grows long and deep, there are the great white stars of the hemlock flower, there the nightingale sings all night long. All night long he sings, and the cold, crystal moon looks down, and the yew-tree spreads out its giant arms over the sleepers.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“It is very wrong to kill any one[.]"
"Oh, I hate the cheap severity of abstract ethics!”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“the Garden of Death"
"Yes, death. Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft
brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and
listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow. To
forget time, to forget life, to be at peace. You can help me.
You can open for me the portals of death's house, for love is
always with you, and love is stronger than death is.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“It is very difficult sometimes to keep awake, especially at church, but there is no difficulty at all about sleeping.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“Oh, I hate the cheap severity of abstract ethics!”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“They were evidently people on a low, material plane of existence, and quite incapable of appreciating the symbolic value of sensuous phenomena.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“Once in New York, you are sure to be a great success. I know lots of people there who would give a hundred thousand dollars to have a grandfather, and much more than that to have a family ghost.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“Indeed, in many respects, she was quite English, and was an excellent example of the fact that we have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“I suppose because we have no ruins and no curiosities,” said Virginia satirically.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“The blood-stain has been much admired by tourists and others, and cannot be removed." "That is all nonsense," cried Washington Otis; "Pinkerton's Champion Stain Remover and Paragon Detergent will clean it up in no time," and before the terrified housekeeper could interfere, he had fallen upon his knees, and was rapidly scouring the floor with a small stick of what looked like a black cosmetic. In a few moments no trace of the blood-stain could be seen.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“Pinkerton's Champion Stain Remover and Paragon Detergent”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“My dear Hiram," cried Mrs. Otis, "what can we do with a woman who faints?" "Charge it to her like breakages," answered the Minister; "she won't faint after that;”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“In fact, he was dressed for the character of ‘Jonas the Graveless, or the Corpse-Snatcher of Chertsey Barn,’ one of his most remarkable impersonations”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“There was evidently no time to be lost, so, hastily adopting the Fourth dimension of Space as a means of escape, he vanished through the wainscoting, and the house became quite quiet.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“Wishing to make an effective entrance, he flung it wide open, when a heavy jug of water fell right down on him, wetting him to the skin, and just missing his left shoulder by a couple of inches. At the same moment he heard stifled shrieks of laughter proceeding from the four-post bed.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“Además, olvida usted, señor Otis, que el precio que pagó incluía tanto el castillo como el fantasma...”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“The next morning, when the Otis family met at breakfast, they discussed the ghost at some length. The United States Minister was naturally a little annoyed to find that his present had not been accepted. “I have no wish,” he said, “to do the ghost any personal injury, and I must say that, considering the length of time he has been in the house, I don’t think it is at all polite to throw pillows at him” —a very just remark, at which, I am sorry to say, the twins burst into shouts of laughter. “Upon the other hand,” he continued, “if he really declines to use the Rising Sun Lubricator, we shall have to take his chains from him. It would be quite impossible to sleep, with such a noise going on outside the bedrooms.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“few weeks after this, the purchase was concluded, and at the close of the season the Minister and his family went down to Canterville Chase. Mrs. Otis, who, as Miss Lucretia R. Tappan, of West 53d Street, had been a celebrated New York belle, was now a very handsome, middle-aged woman, with fine eyes, and a superb profile.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“Lord Canterville:" I feat that the ghost exists... and always makes its appearance before the death of any member of our family. "

Mr. Otis: "Well, so does the family doctor for that matter, Lord Canterville. But there is no such thing, sir, as a ghost, and I guess the laws of Nature are not going to be suspended for the British aristocracy.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“Love is stronger than death is”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“smiling," though it may have resisted the overtures”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“Me hizo ver lo que era la vida, y lo que significa la muerte; y por qué el amor es más fuerte que ambas.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

“I come from a modern country, where we have everything that money can buy; and with all our spry young fellows painting the Old World red, and carrying off your best actors and prima-donnas, I reckon that if there were such a thing as a ghost in Europe, we'd have it at home in a very short time in one of our public museums, or on the road as a show.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost