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Set in the manner of Art Nouveau, a style from Stylogeny. Lord Darlington says it in Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), in his rooms in London, late at night. Art Nouveau is the ornament of that decade: a night ground, gold for the stars.
The picture is AI‑generated: not a historical work, and it holds no words of the quote. The small portrait beside the name is AI‑generated too, after a public-domain original named on the person’s page.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Genuine
Yes. In Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), Act III, said by Lord Darlington. These are the character’s words, not a statement in Wilde’s own voice.
Found word for word by program in the full text.
- Work
- Lady Windermere’s Fan, 1892
- Where
- Act III
- Found at
- Paragraph 603 of the text
Researched by AI; checked by program against the full text on 31 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
On the page
[…] That is the worst of women. They always want one to be good. And if we are good, when they meet us, they don’t love us at all. They like to find us quite irretrievably bad, and to leave us quite unattractively good.
LORD DARLINGTON. [Rising from R. table, where he has been writing letters.] They always do find us bad!
DUMBY. I don’t think we are bad. I think we are all good, except Tuppy.
LORD DARLINGTON. No, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.1 [Sits down at C. table.]
DUMBY. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars? Upon my word, you are very romantic to-night, Darlington.
CECIL GRAHAM. Too romantic! You must be in love. Who is the girl?
LORD DARLINGTON. The woman I love is not free, or thinks she isn’t. [Glances instinctively at LORD WINDERMERE while he speaks.]
The scene
Late at night after the ball, the men come back to Lord Darlington’s rooms. Lady Windermere is hiding there behind a curtain: she has come to leave her husband for Darlington, and Mrs Erlynne has followed to bring her back. Over drinks, Cecil Graham complains that women always want men to be good; Dumby says they are all good except Tuppy (Lord Augustus); Darlington answers with this line. Dumby mocks him as ‘very romantic’, and Darlington goes on to speak of the one good woman he loves, who is not free: Lady Windermere, who hears every word.
What it means
Nobody is clean, but people differ in what they look up to: some, even in a low place, still aspire to something better. Darlington means himself, a man of the world in love with a good woman.
Often misread
Quoted as an uplifting motto of hope, often as Wilde’s own, without its setting: a rake’s half-serious remark among cynical clubmen, mocked on the spot. The play does lean towards it, though: it ends by showing that the ‘bad’ Mrs Erlynne is capable of sacrifice and the ‘good’ Lady Windermere of a fall.
Also shared as
- ShortenedWe are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. The line on its own, with Dumby’s mockery and Darlington’s ‘No,’ dropped.
Topics
Related quotes
- A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
- Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
- Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny. (misattributed) C. S. Lewis
- Human potential, though not always apparent, is there waiting to be discovered and invited forth. (paraphrase) William W. Purkey
- What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. (misattributed) Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sources
Cite it
Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), Act III. Spoken by Lord Darlington. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/in-the-gutter-looking-at-the-stars/ (31 October 2026).
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Checked by people
People who checked this entry against its source, under their own names. Their checks do not change the verdict: an editor reviews every entry.
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