We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Oscar Wilde Lady Windermere's Fan, Act III (1892)
Source checked by an editor
When and why it was written
- When
- First performed in London in February 1892.
- Why
- Lord Darlington says it to Cecil Graham in a scene of men talking cynically about virtue.
What it means
It is a joke that stops being one. Wilde gives the line to Darlington, who has just been called a cynic and is refusing the label.
The structure matters: the gutter is stated as shared and unarguable, and the difference between people is only the direction of attention. Nobody gets out of the first clause.
Read the source
Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892
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