The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Uncensored 13 Chapter Version + The Revised 20 Chapter Version

by Oscar Wilde

If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat.

When I like people immensely I never tell their names to any one. It seems like surrendering a part of them. You know how I love secrecy. It is the only thing that can make modern life wonderful or mysterious to us. The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it. When I leave town I never tell my people where I am going. If I did, I would lose all my pleasure. It is a silly habit, I dare say, but somehow it seems to bring a great deal of romance into one’s life.

“every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the colored canvas, reveals himself. The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown with it the secret of my own soul.”

I turned halfway round, and saw Dorian Gray for the first time. When our eyes met, I felt that I was growing pale. A curious instinct of terror came over me. I knew that I had come face to face with some one whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself.

“Conscience and cowardice are really the same things, Basil. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all.”

“Laughter is not a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is the best ending for one,”

I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their characters, and my enemies for their brains. A man can’t be too careful in the choice of his enemies. I have not got one who is a fool. They are all men of some intellectual power, and consequently they all appreciate me. Is that very vain of me? I think it is rather vain.”

Tell me more about Dorian Gray. How often do you see him?” “Every day. I couldn’t be happy if I didn’t see him every day. Of course sometimes it is only for a few minutes. But a few minutes with somebody one worships mean a great deal.” “But you don’t really worship him?” “I do.” “How extraordinary! I thought you would never care for anything but your painting, — your art, I should say. Art sounds better, doesn’t it?” “He is all my art to me now.

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

Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.”