The Picture of Dorian Gray

by Oscar Wilde

“There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral—immoral from the scientific point of view.” “Why?” “Because to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of some one else’s music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him.

“I adore simple pleasures,” said Lord Henry. “They are the last refuge of the complex.

The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are.

He felt keenly conscious of how barren all intellectual speculation is when separated from action and experiment.

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