Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes. 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.
— Lord Henry, I am not at all surprised that the world says that you are extremely wicked.
— But what world says that?... It can only be the next world.
Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know.
"I know what pleasure is," cried Dorian Gray. "It is to adore some one."
"That is certainly better than being adored," he answered, toying with some fruits. "Being adored is a nuisance. Women treat us just as humanity treats its gods. They worship us, and are always bothering us to do something for them."
We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.
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.
You will always be loved, and you will always be in love with love.
You come down here to console me. That is charming of you. You find me consoled, and you are furious. How like a sympathetic person!
It was a confession. Now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put one's worship into words.
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