The gods have been good to you. But what the gods give they can quickly take away. You have only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make more bitter than defeats. Every month as it wanes brings you nearer to something dreadful. Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses. You will become sallow, and hollow-cheeked, and dull-eyed. You will suffer horribly.
– Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. Lord Henry continues to feed Dorian’s vanity about his physical attractiveness. He talks about the fleeting nature of beauty, warning that when his youth goes his beauty will go with it. Dorian does have such fears, and in a bid to preserve his beauty at all costs they will drive him to barter his soul for eternal youth. Lilies and roses are metaphors for Dorian’s beauty and his ability to love.