The Picture of Dorian Gray by
Oscar Wilde, 1891.
[source]Genius lasts longer than beauty.
Each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved.
Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our intellects.
It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.
Punctuality is the thief of time.
When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others.
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
Then she paused. A rose shook in her blood and shadowed her cheeks. Quick breath parted the petals of her lips. They trembled. A southern wind of passion swept over her and stirred the dainty folds of her dress. "I love him", she said simply.
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.
Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes.
People are very fond of giving away what they need most themselves.
Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.
Beauty is a form of genius - is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation.
Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know.
Conscience and cowardice are really the same things.