The Picture of Dorian Gray

by Oscar Wilde

I suppose it comes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves.

One’s own soul, and the passions of one’s friends—those were the fascinating things in life.

“Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world’s original sin. If the caveman had known how to laugh, history would have been different.”

“that is one of the great secrets of life. Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes.”

“I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices.

Each man lived his own life and paid his own price for living it. The only pity was one had to pay so often for a single fault. One had to pay over and over again, indeed.

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