Portrait Of Dorian Gray Quotes:

How sad it is!" murmured Dorian Gray with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June… . If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that—for that—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!

- Oscar Wilde

source: The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 2 (1891)

topic: Eye, June, Giving, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Inspirational, Book, Reading, Inspirational Reading, Inspiring Book

It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But... it is better to be good than to be ugly.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Funny, Beauty, Beautiful, Being Beautiful, Dorian Grey

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Law, Yield, Sick, Monstrous, Dorian Grey

I can sympathize with everything, except suffering.

- Oscar Wilde

source: Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray (Diversion Classics)”, p.46, Diversion Books

topic: World Suffering, Gray, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Strength, Emotional, Want, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Love, Mistake, Writing, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Art, Pain, Book, Inspirational Artist, Art Life

You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Humility, Thinking, Want, You Think You Know, Dorian Grey

People who love only once in their lives are shallow people. What they call their loyalty, and their fidelity, I call either the lethargy of custom, or their lack of imagination

- Sydney Smith

topic: Loyalty, Imagination, People, Lethargy, Dorian Grey

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Inspirational, Family, Happiness, Wonder And Mystery, Do Not Judge

Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Inspirational, Life, Death, My Mistakes, Never Regret

There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Beautiful, Evil, Realizing, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

Poets are not so scrupulous as you are. They know how useful passion is for publication. Nowadays a broken heart will run to many editions." "I hate them for it," cried Hallward. "An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty. Some day I will show the world what is it; and for that the world shall never see my portrait of Dorian Gray.

- Oscar Wilde

source: Oscar Wilde (2013). “The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Story of a Fashionable Young Man Who Sells His Soul for Eternal Youth and Beauty (Beloved Books Edition)”, p.17, Lulu Press, Inc

topic: Beautiful, Running, Art, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

I want to be good. I can't bear the idea of my soul being hideous.

- Oscar Wilde

source: Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Joseph Bristow, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts”, p.251, Oxford University Press on Demand

topic: Ideas, Soul, Want, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Love, Inspirational, Funny, Humorous Love, Men Women

Trust yourself, you know more than you think you do.

- Benjamin Spock

source: The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care ch. 1 (1946)

topic: Family, Trust, Encouraging, Trust Your Instincts, Inspirational Confidence

Young men want to be faithful, and are not. Old men want to be faithless, and cannot.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Funny, Marriage, Wedding, Being Faithful, Dorian Grey

Thin-lipped wisdom spoke at her from the worn chair, hinted at prudence, quoted from that book of cowardice whose author apes the name of common sense.

- Oscar Wilde

source: Oscar Wilde (2013). “The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Story of a Fashionable Young Man Who Sells His Soul for Eternal Youth and Beauty (Beloved Books Edition)”, p.73, Lulu Press, Inc

topic: Book, Names, Common Sense, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty.

- Oscar Wilde

source: Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Joseph Bristow, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts”, p.14, Oxford University Press on Demand

topic: Beautiful, Art, Men, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

You must have a cigarette. A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Perfect, Want, Cigarette, Smokers, Unsatisfied

The quivering, ardent sunlight showed him the lines of cruelty round the mouth as clearly as if he had been looking into a mirror after he had done some dreadful thing.

- Oscar Wilde

source: Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Joseph Bristow, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts”, p.66, Oxford University Press on Demand

topic: Halloween, Mirrors, Done, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you have never had the courage to commit.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Sin, Commit, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Funny, Sarcastic, New Relationship, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

Romance lives by repetition, and repetition converts an appetite into an art. Besides, each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it. We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible.

- Oscar Wilde

source: Oscar Wilde, Moira Muldoon (2005). “The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings”, p.211, Simon and Schuster

topic: Life, Art, Passion, Singleness, Dorian Grey

I worshipped you too much. I am punished for it. You worshipped yourself too much. We are both punished.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Too Much, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

It is perfectly monstrous,' he said, at last, 'the way people go about nowadays saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true.

- Oscar Wilde

source: A Woman of No Importance act 1 (1893)

topic: Funny, Truth, Gossip, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.

- Oscar Wilde

source: Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.826, GENERAL PRESS

topic: Love, Forgiving, Enough, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

A woman will flirt with anybody in the world as long as other people are looking on.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Flirty, Flirting, Long, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Book, Reading, Writing, Great Writing, Libraries Books And Reading

Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Men, Laughing, Humanity, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Funny, Humor, Irish Author, Irish Proverbs, Epigrams

My dear boy, the people who love only once in their lives are really the shallow people. What they call their loyalty, and their fidelity, I call either the lethargy of custom or their lack of imagination.. Faithfulness is to the emotional life what consistency is to the life of the intellect---simply a confession of failures. Faithfulness! I must analyse it some day. The passion for property is in it. There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up. But I don't want to interrupt you. Go on with your story.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Loyalty, Passion, Boys, Lethargy, Dorian Grey

Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Love, Life, Heartbreak, Unfaithfulness, Being Faithful

A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Sarcastic, Dorian Grey, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Book, Literature, Wells, Great Writing, Libraries Books And Reading

Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious; both are disappointed.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Funny, Marriage, Sarcastic, Marriage Is Hard, Married Man

You have killed my love. You used to stir my imagination. Now you don't even stir my curiosity. You simply produce no effect. I loved you because you were marvelous, because you had genius and intellect, because you realized the dreams of great poets and gave shape and substance to the shadows of art. You have thrown it all away. You are shallow and stupid

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Dream, Art, Stupid, Marvelous, Portrait Of Dorian Gray