Page:Wilde - A Woman of no Importance, 1909.djvu/130

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A WOMAN OF

ACT III.

LORD ILLINGWORTH
You should never try to understand them. Women are pictures. Men are problems. If you want to know what a woman really means—which, by the way, is always a dangerous thing to do—look at her, don't listen to her.

GERALD
But women are awfully clever, aren't they?

LORD ILLINGWORTH
One should always tell them so. But, to the philosopher, my dear Gerald, women represent the triumph of matter over mind—just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.

GERALD
How then can women have so much power as you say they have?

LORD ILLINGWORTH

The history of women is the history of the worst form of tyranny the world has ever known. The tyranny of the weak

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