The Picture of Dorian Gray Quotes

You, who know all the secrets of life, tell me how to charm Sibyl Vane to love me! I want to make Romeo jealous, I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter, and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir their dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain. My God, Harry, how I worship her!

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Dorian Gray really has it bad for Sibyl. He sounds as if he really loves her. But he is attracted to her as an actress on a stage and is more infatuated with her art and how she appears in her stage roles that he is with her person.

The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists simply exist in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. The worse their rhymes are, the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realise.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Lord Henry shares his views on artists with Dorian. He believes good artists make for dull people because they give too much of themselves to their art. Bad artists on the other hand are delightful people, they live the poetry they cannot write.

Certainly few people had ever interested him so much as Dorian Gray, and yet the lad’s mad adoration of some one else caused him not the slightest pang of annoyance or jealousy. He was pleased by it. It made him a more interesting study.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Aristocratic puppet master Lord Henry wants to manipulate and control Dorian. The young lad’s "mad adoration" for actress Sibyl Vane doesn’t in the slightest make Henry jealous, but rather makes him an even more interesting challenge for Henry. But Dorian seems to be more of a guinea pig for him than just an "interesting study," as Henry puts it.

Yes, the lad was premature. He was gathering his harvest while it was yet spring. The pulse and passion of youth were in him, but he was becoming self-conscious. It was delightful to watch him. With his beautiful face, and his beautiful soul, he was a thing to wonder at. It was no matter how it all ended, or was destined to end. He was like one of those gracious figures in a pageant or a play, whose joys seem to be remote from one, but whose sorrows stir one’s sense of beauty, and whose wounds are like red roses.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. After Dorian leaves his home, Lord Henry reflects on how fascinating a psychological study Dorian has become for him, even with his sudden love affair with Sibyl. Henry pays close attention to the young man’s striking physical beauty, which some believe hints at male worship and a subtext of homosexual attraction. But for Henry, Dorian is more of a scientific experiment in his ongoing manipulation to mold the boy into his own image. He finds it amusing to compare Dorian to a piece of art, a figure in a pageant or play, as the master manipulator feeds him his lines. Selfishly Henry confesses that he doesn’t really care about how it all ends, including the "sorrows" and wounds "like red roses" it will bring. This foreshadows that the toxic relationship with Lord Henry will bring about his protege’s destruction. The passage uses both metaphor and simile in its description of Dorian ("gathering his harvest while it was yet spring" and "wounds are like red roses").

Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Lord Henry is thinking about ethnics and morals. His train of thought continues: "Moralists had, as a rule, regarded it as a mode of warning, had claimed for it a certain ethical efficacy in the formation of character, had praised it as something that taught us what to follow and showed us what to avoid. But there was no motive power in experience. It was as little of an active cause as conscience itself. All that it really demonstrated was that our future would be the same as our past, and that the sin we had done once, and with loathing, we would do many times, and with joy." Henry has a cynical view about morality and doesn’t see experience as having any motivating power to make us better people. All experience showed was that our future would be the same as our past, but we would enjoy our sins more in the future. As an aesthete Henry sees no distinction between moral and immoral acts.

His sudden mad love for Sibyl Vane was a psychological phenomenon of no small interest. There was no doubt that curiosity had much to do with it, curiosity and the desire for new experiences; yet it was not a simple but rather a very complex passion. What there was in it of the purely sensuous instinct of boyhood had been transformed by the workings of the imagination, changed into something that seemed to the lad himself to be remote from sense, and was for that very reason all the more dangerous.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Dorian has become an interesting study for Lord Henry, especially now that he has fallen in love. In this passage Henry thinks to himself about the young man’s sudden passion for the actress Sybyl Vane. Not a believer in longterm love himself, Henry puts Dorian’s love down to curiosity for life and for new experiences. He describes Dorian’s crazy passion for Sibyl as a complex and no simple matter, but also "dangerous," foreshadowing the tragic events to follow in the novel.

Thin-lipped Wisdom spoke at her from the worn chair, hinted at prudence, quoted from that book of cowardice whose author apes the name of common sense. She did not listen. She was free in her prison of passion. Her prince, Prince Charming, was with her. She had called on Memory to remake him. She had sent her soul to search for him, and it had brought him back. His kiss burned again upon her mouth. Her eyelids were warm with his breath.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 5. Mrs. Vane has learned that her daughter Sibyl has fallen lock, stock and barrel for Dorian Gray. With her "thin-lipped wisdom" she advises Sibyl that she mustn’t think of anything but her acting. But Sibyl does not listen. Wilde describes Sibyl’s "prison of passion" in which she believes that she is free to be alongside her "Prince Charming." Sibyl as a damsel in distress swooning with the happiness of love and needing a Prince hero to rescue her (from her acting life) is one of the classic elements of Gothic fiction. The prison metaphor is also foreshadowing that the love affair will bring her disaster.

"Mother! mother!" she cried, "why does he love me so much? I know why I love him. I love him because he is like what Love himself should be. But what does he see in me? I am not worthy of him. And yet – why, I cannot tell – though I feel so much beneath him, I don’t feel humble. I feel proud, terribly proud"

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 5. The pitiful naivety and innocence of Sibyl is vividly demonstrated in these words to her mother. She feels that she is not worthy of Dorian’s love and wonders what he sees in her. Her purity and lack of guile stand in stark contract to Lord Henry’s deviousness and cynical manipulation of people.

Mrs. Vane fixed her eyes on him, and intensified the smile. She mentally elevated her son to the dignity of an audience. She felt sure that the tableau was interesting.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chaper 5. Mrs. Vane seems to view life as a piece of theater. When James enters the room, where Sibyl has been excitedly telling her mother about her "Prince Charming" Dorian, her theatrical instincts kick in. Mrs. Vane imagines the moment as a "tableau" and she mentally sees her son as the audience. Theater and art are important to the Vane family and to Mrs. Vane appearances really do matter.

For some months past she had felt ill at ease when she was alone with this rough, stern son of hers. Her shallow, secret nature was troubled when their eyes met. She used to wonder if he suspected anything.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 5. Mrs. Vane feels ill at ease when she is alone with her rough and brash son James and seems to have a disconnect with him. The unease is not directly explained in the novel, but may be to do with James’s suspicion about Sibyl’s lover Dorian and distrust of his mother’s motivation in this and her interest in Dorian’s wealth. James is very protective of his sister Sibyl.

There is no doubt that the young man in question is a perfect gentleman. He is always most polite to me. Besides, he has the appearance of being rich, and the flowers he sends are lovely…I trust he is one of the aristocracy. He has all the appearance of it, I must say. It might be a most brilliant marriage for Sibyl. They would make a charming couple. His good looks are really quite remarkable; everybody notices them.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 5. Mrs. Vane is happy with the match between Dorian and her daughter Sibyl, she explains to her son James. She has no doubt that Dorian is the perfectly gentleman and it will be a perfect marriage, she tells her suspicious son. How wrong she is! She judges Dorian completely on appearances and is won over by his good looks, politeness and aristocratic appearance.

The passers-by glanced in wonder at the sullen, heavy youth, who, in coarse, ill-fitting clothes, was in the company of such a graceful, refined-looking girl. He was like a common gardener walking with a rose.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 5. When sister and brother Sibyl and James stroll down the street together they appear a very odd looking pair to people. One the heavy and moody youth, burdened down with his concern over his sister. The other a beautiful girl full of grace and refinement. A simile and metaphor are used to compare the two to a gardener and a rose.

As sure as there is God in heaven, if he ever does you any wrong, I shall kill him.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 5. James Vane, who is jealous of Dorian Gray and has a deep hatred of him for coming between him and his sister Sibyl, believes that her "Prince Charming" will break her heart. This is foreshadowing of how Dorian will indeed cast Sibyl aside, resulting in her suicide, after which James spends years tracking Dorian with the intention of avenging his sister’s by killing her lover. James has a very strong moral code, which dictates that he protects a loved one even at the expense of breaking the law.

"I hope the girl is good, Harry. I don’t want to see Dorian tied to some vile creature, who might degrade his nature and ruin his intellect."
"Oh, she is better than good – she is beautiful," murmured Lord Henry, sipping a glass of vermouth and orange-bitters. "Dorian says she is beautiful, and he is not often wrong about things of that kind. Your portrait of him has quickened his appreciation of the personal appearance of other people. It has had that excellent effect, amongst others."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 6. Basil hopes that the girl Dorian is engaged to be married to is good. However, Henry dismisses the importance of goodness, saying that beauty is far better and she has that. Basil’s portrait has made Dorian appreciate even more the appearance of other people, he tells the artist. Henry’s promotion of the aesthetic philosophy reflects the conflict in the novel between aestheticism and morality. In a letter to St. James’s Gazette responding to a complaint that the novel had no moral, Wilde wrote: "The poor public, hearing, from an authority so high as your own, that this is a wicked book that should be coerced and suppressed by a Tory Government, will, no doubt, rush to it and read it. But, alas! they will find that it is a story with a moral. And the moral is this: All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment."

I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices. I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 6. Lord Henry is asked by Basil if he approves of Dorian getting engaged to the actress Sibyl Vane. Basil dismisses the engagement as a "silly infatuation" and believes Henry cannot possibly approve of it because Dorian is marrying beneath him. But Harry doesn’t believe in taking any moral position on anything and neither approves nor disapproves of anything. With trademark shallowness he explains that "If a personality fascinates me, whatever mode of expression that personality selects is absolutely delightful to me."

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 6. Lord Henry has very interesting views on optimism. To him it is just an illusion. For beneath it is the fear that a person’s comfortable and cozy world is under threat. The fuller version of his cynical judgment on optimism: "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. We think that we are generous because we credit our neighbour with the possession of those virtues that are likely to be a benefit to us. We praise the banker that we may overdraw our account, and find good qualities in the highwayman in the hope that he may spare our pockets. We praise the banker that we may overdraw our account, and find good qualities in the highwayman in the hope that he may spare our pockets. I mean everything that I have said. I have the greatest contempt for optimism."

She trembled all over and shook like a white narcissus. Then she flung herself on her knees and kissed my hands. I feel that I should not tell you all this, but I can’t help it.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 6. Similes are extensively used in the novel to enhance the storytelling. It is one of the aesthetic tools Wilde uses to show the beauty of the English language. In this passage Dorian tells Lord Henry and Basil about Sibyl’s reaction when he kisses her for the first time. He uses a simile to compare her to "a white narcissus," to indicate her beauty and purity.
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