We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind, and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret.
– Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. Lord Henry is an advocate of sin and suggests that self-denial only serves to heighten the desire for what we deny ourselves. This makes us brood and poisons us. He sees the commission of sin as a form of purification, for when we sin we are done with it. All that remains is the memory of a pleasure or regret.