The Quotations of Dorian Gray

(I originally wrote this privately in December 2017, on the anniversary of Matt’s death. Two and a half years on, I’d like to share it with you 😎)

Oscar Wilde was Matt Smith’s favourite author and now I understand why. The Picture of Dorian Gray is by far the most quotable novel I’ve read.

Below is a collection of my favourite quotes. I fundamentally disagree with some of them — yet each quote is either meaningful, entertaining, or both. They all constitute impressive art.

The first section is my seven favourite. The following sections then split by topic.

Favourites

1. One has a right to judge of a man by the effect he has over his friends.
2. You are far too wise not to do foolish things now and then.
3. 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.
4. It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style.
5. To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
6. The worship of the senses has often, and with much justice, been decried, men feeling a natural instinct of terror about passions and sensations that seem stronger than themselves.
7. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming.

Beauty & Art

1. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming.
2. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
3. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
4. Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.
5. Beauty is a form of genius — is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation.

Sin & Pleasure

1. The worship of the senses has often, and with much justice, been decried, men feeling a natural instinct of terror about passions and sensations that seem stronger than themselves.
2. Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed.
3. 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.
4. For all sins, as theologians weary not of reminding us, are sins of disobedience.
5. Each of us has heaven and hell in him.
6. I represent to you all the sins you have never had the courage to commit.
7. When we are happy, we are always good, but when we are good, we are not always happy.
8. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

Men & Women

1. Women…inspire us with the desire to do masterpieces, and always prevent us from carrying them out.
2. When a woman marries again, it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs.
3. Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.

Love & Fidelity

1. What a fuss people make about fidelity!…Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot.
2. To be in love is to surpass one’s self.
3. My dear boy, the people who love only once in their lives are really the shallow people. What they call their loyalty, and their fidelity, I call either the lethargy of custom or their lack of imagination. Faithfulness is to the emotional life what consistency is to the life of the intellect — simply a confession of failure.
4. The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray, and the advantage of science is that it is not emotional.

Amuse & Smile

1. You are far too wise not to do foolish things now and then.
2. To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
3. It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about nowadays saying things against one behind one’s back that are absolutely and entirely true.
4. I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable.
5. Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
6. He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.

Character & Society

1. 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.
2. Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities.
3. It is only shallow people who require years to get rid of an emotion. A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.
4. There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
5. It is better not to be different from one’s fellows. The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world…If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat.
6. Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world’s original sin.
7. The bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself.

Friends & Enemies

1. One has a right to judge of a man by the effect he has over his friends.
2. I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects.
3. Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.
4. I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.
5. You don’t understand what friendship is…You like everyone; that is to say, you are indifferent to everyone.

Philosophy & Teachings

1. It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style.
2. Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
3. Realise your youth while you have it. Don’t squander the gold of your days…giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar. These are the sickly aims, the false ideals, of our age. Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you!…Be afraid of nothing.
4. The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we’re all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
5. To be good is to be in harmony with oneself. Discord is to be forced to be in harmony with others.
6. I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvelous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it.
7. There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.