The Picture of Dorian Gray Quotes

He played with the idea, and grew wilful; tossed it into the air and transformed it; let it escape and recaptured it…He charmed his listeners out of themselves, and they followed his pipe laughing.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 3. When it comes to witty sayings, Lord Henry is the gift that keeps on giving. He is holding court at his Aunt Agatha’s house, saying that the way to stay young is to relive and repeat one’s mistakes. A game and jugging metaphor is used to describe how he plays with the idea and thoroughly charms his listeners.

My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Lord Henry says this to Dorian, while discussing Dorian’s interest in the actress Sibyl Vane. Dorian has told him that he is in love with the actress and that she is a genius. Henry shows his condescending and derogatory view of women. He also seems to suggest that men are at heart immoral.

I felt that this grey monstrous London of ours, with its myriads of people, its sordid sinners, and its splendid sins, as you once phrased it, must have something in store for me. I fancied a thousand things. The mere danger gave me a sense of delight…I don’t know what I expected, but I went out and wandered eastward, soon losing my way in a labyrinth of grimy streets and black grassless squares.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. London was the largest and most powerful city in the world in the 19th century, when the story takes place. The moral degeneration of the city and the ambivalent attitude of Victorians towards their capital’s decadence is reflected in Dorian’s description to Lord Henry of his stroll through the East End. The city’s East End with its "sordid sinners" and its "splendid sins" is like another character in the novel, its corruption represents the corruption that will soon be Dorian’s.

"You will laugh at me, I know, but I really went in and paid a whole guinea for the stage-box. To the present day I can’t make out why I did so; and yet if I hadn’t – my dear Harry, if I hadn’t – I should have missed the greatest romance of my life. I see you are laughing. It is horrid of you!"
"I am not laughing, Dorian; at least I am not laughing at you. But you should not say the greatest romance of your life. You should say the first romance of your life. You will always be loved, and you will always be in love with love. A grande passion is the privilege of people who have nothing to do. That is the one use of the idle classes of a country. Don’t be afraid. There are exquisite things in store for you. This is merely the beginning."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. At this point Dorian still retains some of his youthful innocence. It hasn’t yet been completely taken away from him by the cynical Lord Henry. But on hearing of Dorian’s "greatest romance" with Sibyl, Henry is hell bent on changing all that. The Svengali-like Henry plays down the romance, tells Dorian that there are exquisite things in store for him, and continues to influence and manipulate him.

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.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Lord Henry has no time for lifetime love or fidelity, he makes clear to Dorian. After hearing Dorian confess to loving a girl after knowing her just three weeks, Henry rubbishes being faithful to one love as a "confession of failure" and bad for your emotional life.

But Juliet! Harry, imagine a girl, hardly seventeen years of age, with a little, flowerlike face, a small Greek head with plaited coils of dark-brown hair, eyes that were violet wells of passion, lips that were like the petals of a rose.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Dorian is captivated by the performance of Sibyl as Juliet in Shakespeare’s play. He describes her as a beautiful object. Her eyes are likened in a metaphor as "violet wells of passion" and lips are compared in a simile to the "petals of a rose." Dorian seems preoccupied with Sibyl’s physical appearance rather than her personality.

You know how a voice can stir one. Your voice and the voice of Sibyl Vane are two things that I shall never forget. When I close my eyes, I hear them, and each of them says something different. I don’t know which to follow.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Dorian feels that he is at a crossroads. He doesn’t know whether to follow the voice of good, that of the girl he loves Sibyl Vane, or the voice of evil and the amoral Lord Henry, who exerts a strong influence over his protege young Dorian.

Ordinary women never appeal to one’s imagination. They are limited to their century. No glamour ever transfigures them. One knows their minds as easily as one knows their bonnets.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Dorian Gray says that he has seen Sibyl Vane performing "in every age and every costume." While he has confessed love for Sibyl after seeing her on stage as Juliet he is clearly not in love with Sibyl the person. For she is not a real person to him, but a piece of art for him to admire. Ordinary women have no appeal to him, Dorian confesses. He goes on to say: "One can always find them. There is no mystery in any of them. They ride in the Park in the morning and chatter at tea-parties in the afternoon. They have their stereotyped smile, and their fashionable manner. They are quite obvious. But an actress! How different an actress is!" Notice how Dorian is starting to speak like the cynical Lord Henry, like in the quote above, reflecting Henry’s growing influence on the young man.

You can dine with me to-night, Dorian, can’t you?"
He shook his head. "To-night she is Imogen," he answered, "and to-morrow night she will be Juliet.
"When is she Sibyl Vane?"
"Never."
"I congratulate you."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. The theme of appearances is dealt with here as Dorian tells Lord Henry of the different stage roles Sibyl plays. Asked when is she Sibyl, Dorian replies never – he is in love with her art and not Sibyl the person. The shallow Henry, a man who values only the appearance of things, congratulates Dorian.
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