Relations are simply a tedious pack of people who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die.

More from The Importance of Being Earnest

• CECILY. I have never met any really wicked person before. I feel rather frightened. I am so afraid he will look just like every one else.
• After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.
• ALGERNON. The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility! JACK. That wouldn’t be at all a bad thing.
• A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
• A man cannot be too careful in his choice of enemies.
• A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.