Dorian Grey Quotes

• 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

  Strength, Emotional, Use

  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.85, Oxford University Press on Demand

  78 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

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

  Benjamin Spock

  Positive, Family, Trust

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

  110 Copy quote

  Show source

• Faithfulness is to the emotional life what consistency is to the life of the intellect - simply a confession of failures.

  Oscar Wilde

  Failure, Emotional, Consistency

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.102, Courier Corporation

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them.

  Oscar Wilde

  Beautiful, Art, Should

  Oscar Wilde, Nicholas Frankel (2011). “The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition”, p.85, Harvard University Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Men, Laughing, Humanity

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Short Stories”, p.53, Cosimo, Inc.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Mistake, Writing

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 4 (1891). A similar quotation occurs inWilde's play LadyWindermere's Fan, act 3 (1892).

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Reading, Writing

  The Picture of Dorian Gray preface (1891)

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Marriage, Sarcastic

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 4 (1891).Wilde used the same words in A Woman of No Importance (1893).

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Loyalty, People, Imagination

  9 Copy quote

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

  Oscar Wilde

  Ideas, Soul, Want

  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

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Oscar Wilde

  Humility, Thinking, Want

  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.24, Oxford University Press on Demand

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Oscar Wilde

  Beautiful, Evil, Realizing

  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.125, Oxford University Press on Demand

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Portrait Of Dorian Gray, Only Time

  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.336, Oxford University Press on Demand

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Oscar Wilde

  Too Much, Gray, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

  Oscar Wilde, Moira Muldoon (2005). “The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings”, p.168, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Writing, Reading Literature

  The Picture of Dorian Gray preface (1891)

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Marriage, Wedding

  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.37, Lulu Press, Inc

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Yield, Law, Sick

  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.21, Oxford University Press on Demand

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself.

  Oscar Wilde

  Artist, Feelings, Portraits

  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.7, Oxford University Press on Demand

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Eye, June, Giving

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 2 (1891)

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Humor, Things In Life

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 1 (1891) See Behan 3; Modern Proverbs 71

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• I can sympathize with everything, except suffering.

  Oscar Wilde

  World Suffering, Gray, I Can

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

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.

  Oscar Wilde

  Regret, Mistake, Common Sense

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 3 (1891)

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Anger, Reading

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 19 (1891)

  74 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Funny, Sarcastic

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 1 (1891)

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Pain, Book

  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.7, Oxford University Press on Demand

  26 Copy quote

  Show source