I love Sibyl Vane. I want to place her on a pedestal of gold,
and to see the world worship the woman who is mine. What is
marriage? An irrevocable vow. You mock at it for that. Ah! Don't
mock. It is an irrevocable vow that I want to take.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Dorian Gray, Chapter 6. |
You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the
sins you never had the courage to commit.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Lord Henry Wotton to Dorian, Chapter 6. |
A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It
is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one
want?
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Lord Henry, Chapter 6. |
If this girl can give a soul to those who have lived without
one, if she can create the sense of beauty in people whose lives
have been sordid and ugly, if she can strip them of their selfishness
and lend them tears for sorrows that are not their own, she
is worthy of all your adoration, worthy of the adoration of
the world. This marriage is quite right. I did not think so
at first, but I admit it now. The gods made Sibyl Vane for you.
Without her you are incomplete.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Artist Basil Hallward to Dorian, Chapter
7. |
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 marvellous, because you
had genius and intellect, because you realised 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.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Dorian to Sibil Lane, Chapter 7. |
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.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Chapter 7. |
His unreal and selfish love would yield to some higher influence,
would be transformed into some nobler passion, and the portrait
that Basil Hallward had painted of him would be a guide to him
through life, would be to him what holiness is to some, and
conscience to others, and the fear of God to us all. There were
opiates for remorse, drugs that could lull the moral sense to
sleep. But here was a visible symbol of the degradation of sin.
Here was an ever-present sign of the ruin men brought upon their
souls.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Chapter 8. |
I know what conscience is, to begin with. It is not what you
told me it was. It is the divinest thing in us. Don't sneer
at it, Harry, any more - at least not before me. I want to be
good. I can't bear the idea of my soul being hideous.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Dorian, Chapter 8. |
I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to
use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Dorian, Chapter 9. |
Yes, there was to be, as Lord Henry had prophesied, a new
Hedonism that was to recreate life, and to save from that harsh,
uncomely puritanism that is having, in our own day, its curious
revival.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Chapter 11. |
There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode
through which he could realise his conception of the beautiful.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Chapter 11. |
What is it that one was taught to say in one's boyhood? "Lead
us not into temptation. Forgive us our sins. Wash away our iniquities."
Let us say that together. The prayer of your pride has bee answered.
The prayer of your repentance will be answered also. I worshipped
you too much. I am punished for it. You worshipped yourself
too much. We are both punished.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Basil Hallward to Dorian, Chapter 13. |
Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them,
they will forgive us everything, even our intellects.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Lord Henry, Chapter 15. |
A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not
love her.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Chapter 15. |
It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about nowadays
saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely
and entirely true.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Chapter 15. |
Innocent blood had been spilt. What could atone for that?
Ah! for that there was no atonement; but though forgiveness
was impossible, forgetfulness was possible still, and he was
determined to forget, to stamp the thing out, to crush it as
one would crush the adder that had stung one.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Chapter 16. |
Each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Lord Henry, Chapter 17. |
To be popular one must be a mediocrity.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Lord Henry, Chapter 17. |
It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But it is better
to be good than to be ugly.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Lord Henry to Dutchess of Monmouth, Chapter
17. |
A woman will flirt with anybody in the world as long as other
people are looking on.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Lord Henry, Chapter 18. |
Anybody can be good in the country.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Lord Henry, Chapter 19. |
It is an odd thing, but every one who disappears is said to
be seen at San Francisco. It must be a delightful city, and
possess all the attractions of the next world.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Chapter 19. |
To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except
take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Lord Henry, Chapter 19. |
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show
the world its own shame.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Lord Henry, Chapter 19. |
There was purification in punishment. Not "Forgive us
our sins," but "Smite us for our iniquities"
should be the prayer of a man to a most just God.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Chapter 20. |
When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid
portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the
wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty. Lying on the floor
was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart.
He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not
till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it
was.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Last lines of novel, Chapter 20. |
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The Picture of Dorian
Gray, Preface-Chapter 5
