The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray

by Oscar Wilde

It is a sad thing to think of, but there is no doubt that Genius lasts longer than Beauty. That accounts for the fact that we all take such pains to overeducate ourselves. In the wild struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place.

Those who are faithful know only the pleasures of love; it is the faithless who know love’s tragedies.”

“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”

One could never pay too high a price for any sensation.

It is not good for one’s morals to see bad acting.

Veil after veil of thin dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colours of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its antique pattern.

Out of the unreal shadows of the night comes back the real life that we had known.

“So you think that it is only God who sees the soul, Basil? Draw that curtain back, and you will see mine.”

“You told me you had destroyed it.” “I was wrong. It has destroyed me.”