The Picture of Dorian Gray Quotes

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Preface. Wilde’s novel when first published in 1890 was criticized as scandalous and immoral. The review in London’s Daily Chronicle blasted it as "a poisonous book, the atmosphere of which is heavy with the mephitic odours of moral and spiritual putrefaction." In the preface, which was added to a revised edition of the novel in 1891, Wilde argued that books were neither moral nor immoral, but well or badly written. In other words, art does not instruct and has no effect, other than aesthetic, on people or society.

The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass. The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Preface. Here Wilde says that 19th century people do not like realistic art, because it shows them uncomfortable truths about themselves. And they don’t like romantic art because it shows them visions of what humanity might be, and they are unable to relate to it.

All art is quite useless.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Preface. This quote means that art doesn’t express anything but itself. It has no function beyond being viewed and enjoyed. In 1890, a university student named Bernulf Clegg wrote Wilde asking him to expand on this line in the preface. Wilde replied: "Art is useless because its aim is simply to create a mood. It is not meant to instruct, or to influence action in any way. It is superbly sterile, and the note of its pleasure is sterility."

The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn…The sullen murmur of the bees shouldering their way through the long unmown grass, or circling with monotonous insistence round the dusty gilt horns of the straggling woodbine, seemed to make the stillness more oppressive. The dim roar of London was like the bourdon note of a distant organ.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. The novel begins with a scene where painter Basil Hallward and his aristocratic friend Lord Henry Wotton are seated in the artist’s studio. The opening lines are filled with evocative imagery and language that is sensuous, aesthetic and florid. Wilde was a standard-bearer of the aesthetic movement. The movement believed that art should not attempt to deliver a moral or educational message, but should give sensual pleasure. The opening passage sets out to deluge our senses. Much use of figurative language is made from the onomatopoeia of "sullen murmer" to the perfect simile of "like the bourdon note of a distant organ." Luxury and wealth are suggested by the sensory overload here. A mood of quiet decadence and atmosphere of oppressive stillness is introduced, as if to suggest that sometime in the near future all will be disrupted by the presence of evil.

A portrait like this would set you far above all the young men in England, and make the old men quite jealous, if old men are ever capable of any emotion.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Lord Henry’s eyebrows are raised when Basil tells him that he won’t be sending his portrait of Dorian to the Grosvenor or anywhere else for public display. Urging him to do so, he tells Basil that it is "the best thing you have never done" and such a portrait would make him the envy of others throughout England. Basil is seen in the novel as the artist metaphor for Oscar Wilde himself.

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Wilde’s novel is full of delicious epigrams, this being one of his more witty ones. Lord Henry says the line to Basil because he thinks the artist is "silly" not to put his portrait of Dorian on show. Painters will do anything in the world to gain a reputation, but as soon as they have one, they seem to want to throw it away, Lord Henry remarks.

There is a fatality about all physical and intellectual distinction, the sort of fatality that seems to dog through history the faltering steps of kings. It is better not to be different from one’s fellows. The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Basil reacts to Lord Henry’s ideas about physical beauty vs intellectual power and telling Basil that he isn’t in the least like Dorian Gray. Basil makes clear that he’s not interested in having the beauty of Dorian, saying that it’s better not to be different. The ugly and stupid know nothing of victory or defeat but live undisturbed lives without worry, he goes on to say.

Your rank and wealth, Harry; my brains, such as they are – my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray’s good looks – we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Basil tells Lord Henry that it is better not to be different than one’s fellows. He warns that Lord Henry, Basil and Dorian will suffer for the gifts the gods have given them – position and wealth, art, and good looks. There is a great deal of foreshadowing here of tragic consequences to come.

The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Lord Henry is a character with a very cynical view on marriage. To him it involves playing a role where you merely act the part of being married in public for appearances sake, and then carry on as you wish in private. For him that means indulging his hedonism. Providing us with an insight into this loveless marital arrangement, he goes on to say: "I never know where my wife is, and my wife never knows what I am doing. When we meet – we do meet occasionally, when we dine out together, or go down to the Duke’s – we tell each other the most absurd stories with the most serious faces. My wife is very good at it – much better, in fact, than I am. She never gets confused over her dates, and I always do. But when she does find me out, she makes no row at all. I sometimes wish she would; but she merely laughs at me." Lord Henry certainly doesn’t love his wife, but he certainly loves himself!

I believe that you are really a very good husband, but that you are thoroughly ashamed of your own virtues. You are an extraordinary fellow. You never say a moral thing, and you never do a wrong thing. Your cynicism is simply a pose.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. After Lord Henry describes marriage as a life of mutual deception between the spouses, Basil say that he hates the way Henry talks about his married life. He believes that Henry is essentially a good husband and his cynacism is just a pose. Henry never says a moral thing, but he never does a wrong thing, says Basil. Basil is a decent man who thoroughly believes in the goodness of people.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Basil is speaking to Lord Henry about his portrait of Dorian Gray, a young man he is obsessed with. He claims that the painting says more about the artist than his sitter. So the picture is more a reflection of Basil than it is of Dorian, expressing his homoerotic attraction to Dorian.

The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Most artists cannot wait to show off their work to the public, but not so Basil Hallward with his portrait of Dorian. He believes that his picture of Dorian is more than just a work of art. He feels that in it he has revealed much of his own soul, so for that reason he is not willing to exhibit it in front of strangers. Obsessed and infatuated with the young Dorian, he admits to putting into the picture "some expression of all this curious artistic idolatry." But Basil wishes to keep his feelings hidden from the world’s prying eyes. "My heart shall never be put under their microscope," he says. Basil is widely regarded as a metaphor for Wilde the artist, who also once said: "it is not wise to show one’s heart to the world."

A curious sensation of terror came over me. I knew that I had come face to face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Basil Hallward, Chapter 1. Dorian Gray has a huge influence on Basil Hallward’s entire being. The painter describes his reaction to seeing Dorian for the first time at a party thrown by Lady Brandon. The "terror" he experiences and his sudden fascination and obsession with Dorian is foreshadowing of the dangerous relationship he will develop with the young man, which will end badly for both.
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