Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them they will forgive us everything, even our intellects.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray; Oscar Wilde)
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.
To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mistery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray; Oscar Wilde)
There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray; Oscar Wilde)
The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray; Oscar Wilde)
„Women are wonderfully practical,“ murmured Lord Henry, - „much more practical than we are. In situations of that kind we often forget to say anything about marriage, and they always remind us!“
(The Picture of Dorian Gray; Oscar Wilde)
We women, as some one says, love with our ears, just as you men love with your eyes, if you ever love at all.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray; Oscar Wilde)
„I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvellous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it.“
(The Picture of Dorian Gray; Oscar Wilde)
When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray; Oscar Wilde)
„Women treat us just as Humanity treats its gods. They worship us, and are always bothering us to do something for them.“
„I should have said that whatever they ask for they had first given to us,“ murmured the lad, gravely. „They create Love in our natures. They have a right to demand it back.“
(The Picture of Dorian Gray; Oscar Wilde)
In the struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our mindes with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray; Oscar Wilde)
The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray; Oscar Wilde)
I asked the question for the best reason possible, for the only reason, indeed, that excuses one for asking any question – simple curiosity.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray; Oscar Wilde)