The Picture of Dorian Gray

by Oscar Wilde

The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.

We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects.

I will not bare my soul to their shallow prying eyes.

The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray, and the advantage of science is that it is not emotional."

Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes.

There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love.

It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.

Mourn for Ophelia, if you like. Put ashes on your head because Cordelia was strangled. Cry out against Heaven because the daughter of Brabantio died. But don't waste your tears over Sibyl Vane. She was less real than they are."

I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them."

Romance lives by repetition, and repetition converts an appetite into an art.

Art has no influence upon action. It annihilates the desire to act.