Quotes from bookThe Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a Gothic and philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Fearing the story was indecent, the magazine's editor deleted roughly five hundred words before publication without Wilde's knowledge. Despite that censorship, The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, some of whom said that Oscar Wilde merited prosecution for violating the laws guarding public morality. In response, Wilde aggressively defended his novel and art in correspondence with the British press, although he personally made excisions of some of the most controversial material when revising and lengthening the story for book publication the following year.
“Conscience makes egotists of us all.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“We live in an age that reads too much to be wise, and that thinks too much to be beautiful.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“When good Americans die, they go to Paris"
"Where do bad Americans go?"
"They stay in America”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Act I.
A Woman of No Importance (1893)
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Context: Mrs. Allonby: They say, Lady Hunstanton, that when good Americans die they go to Paris.
Lady Hunstanton: Indeed? And when bad Americans die, where do they go to?
Lord Illingworth: Oh, they go to America.
“An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Variant: The one charm about the past is that it is the past.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“The only horrible thing in the world is ennui.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“I find him in the curves of certain lines, in the loveliness and subtleties of certain colours.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“Genius lasts longer than beauty”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“As for believing things, I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Variant: I can believe anything provided it is incredible.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“You told me you had destroyed it."
"I was wrong. It has destroyed me.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“I didn't say I liked it Harry. I said it fascinated me. There is a great difference.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“She knew nothing but she had everything he had lost.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
