The Picture of Dorian Gray (Modern Library)

by Oscar Wilde

We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to.

To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. That is all.