The very essence of romance is uncertainty.

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), Act I Verified source · How we source quotes
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Where this quote comes from

Algernon says this to Jack in the first act of The Importance of Being Earnest, when Jack announces he has come to propose. Algernon finds proposing unromantic, because one might be accepted, and then the excitement is over. Jack has just told him he came up to town expressly to propose to Gwendolen, Algernon's cousin.

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), Act I

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