“I should fancy, however, that murder is always a mistake. One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner.” 

“Each of us has heaven and hell in him, Basil, cried Dorian with a wild gesture of despair.” 

“People are very fond of giving away what they need most themselves.” 

"It seems to me that we never do anything else," murmered Dorian.” 

“To be popular one must be a mediocrity."

“If I could get back my youth, I'd do anything in the world except get up early, take exercise or be respectable.” 

“If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat.” 

“The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion-these are the two things that govern us.” 

“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.” 

"You call yesterday the past?"

“What is done is done. What is past is past."

Circles, like the soul, are never-ending and turn round and round without a stop

The best effect of fine persons is felt after we have left their presence.

“I wish you would tell me your secret. To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.” 

“You are a sceptic." "Never! Scepticism is the beginning of faith." "What are you?" "To define is to limit.” 

“You may fancy yourself safe and think yourself strong. But a chance tone of color in a room or a morning sky, a particular perfume that you had once loved and that brings subtle memories with it, a line from a forgotten poem that you had come across again, a cadence from a piece of music that you had ceased to play. I tell you Dorian, that it is on things like these that our lives depend.” 

“Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.” 

“But what world says that [I'm wicked]? It can only be the next world. This world and I are on excellent terms.” 

“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also.” 

“The bright dawn flooded the room, and swept the fantastic shadows into dusky corners, where they lay shuddering.” 

“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. ” 

“we always misunderstood ourselves, and rarely understood others” 

“Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities.” 

“Veil after veil of thin dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colours of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its antique pattern.”