Is it fair that the folly, the sin of one’s youth, if men choose to call it a sin, should wreck a life like mine, should place me in the pillory, should shatter all that I have worked for, all that I have built up.
 Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband (1895). copy citation

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Author Oscar Wilde
Source An Ideal Husband
Topic youth sin
Date 1895
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/885/885-h/885-h.htm

Context

“Do you think it fair that a man’s whole career should be ruined for a fault done in one’s boyhood almost? I was twenty-two at the time, and I had the double misfortune of being well-born and poor, two unforgiveable things nowadays. Is it fair that the folly, the sin of one’s youth, if men choose to call it a sin, should wreck a life like mine, should place me in the pillory, should shatter all that I have worked for, all that I have built up. Is it fair, Arthur? lord goring. Life is never fair, Robert. And perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not. sir robert chiltern. Every man of ambition has to fight his century with its own weapons.” source