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Dorian Gray: [trying to decline women and drink at a brothel] Well, perhaps I have a stronger conscience.
Lord Henry Wotton: [dismissively] 'Conscience.' It's just a polite word for 'cowardice.' No civilized man regrets a pleasure.
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Lord Henry Wotton: I suggest we raise a little hell.
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Dorian Gray: [On a girl he saw, who just departed with a man] That was probably her husband.
Lord Henry Wotton: Yes, very sensible... People die of common sense, Dorian, one lost moment at a time. Life is a moment. There is no hereafter. So make it burn always with the hardest flame.
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Lord Henry Wotton: What are you?
Dorian Gray: I am what *you* made me! I lived the life that you preached... but never dared practice. I am everything, that you were too afraid to be.
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Emily Wotton: I hope I'm not interrupting your reminiscence?
Lord Henry Wotton: One charm of the past, is that it's the past.
Emily Wotton: Hmm... I hope you're not also a dreary old cynic?
Dorian Gray: What is there to believe in?
Emily Wotton: Our developments.
Dorian Gray: All I see is decay.
Emily Wotton: For the religion!
Dorian Gray: Fashionable substitute for belief.
Emily Wotton: Art?
Dorian Gray: A malady.
Emily Wotton: Love?
Dorian Gray: An illusion.
Lord Henry Wotton: Bravo!
Emily Wotton: Well... you both cut the world to pieces, don't you? Thank you for the cigarette!
Dorian Gray: Unusual woman.
Lord Henry Wotton: She ought to be... she's my daughter.
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Emily Wotton: Oblige me, Mr. Gray...
Dorian Gray: Have you been pursuing this delightful hobby for long?
Emily Wotton: No, it's a gift from my father. In return he made me promise that I wouldn't chain myself to any more railings.
[pause]
Emily Wotton: For suffrage, Mr, Gray. Well, don't you think that woman should be given the vote?
Dorian Gray: I don't believe a woman should be given anything she can't wear in the evening.
Emily Wotton: Ha, what a loss to the front you are. Think of all those Germans that you could bayonet with your epigrams.
Dorian Gray: I do apologize if I offend.
Emily Wotton: Oh no, you'll have to do rather better to offend me.
Dorian Gray: Then I humbly vow to re-double my efforts.
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Lord Henry Wotton: There's no shame in pleasure. Man just wants to be happy. But society wants him to be good. And when he's good, he's rarely happy. But when he's happy, he's always good.
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[last lines]
Lord Henry Wotton: Poor boy. Who can bear to look at you now?
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Lord Henry Wotton: The only way to get rid of a temptation, is to yield to it.
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Lucius: I have the key to your heart.
Dorian Gray: [aggressively] Don't touch that ever!
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Basil Hallward: You shouldn't believe every word Harry says. He doesn't.
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Lord Henry Wotton: I must ask you though what is your secret?
Dorian Gray: If I told you I'd have to kill you.
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Lord Henry Wotton: The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain.
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Lord Henry Wotton: [about the painting] It must be nearly finished, man. It isn't the Sistine Chapel.
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Lady Victoria Wotton: Harry, I've found some more guests for you to insult.
Lord Henry Wotton: I knew I kept her for something.
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Lord Henry Wotton: Chin up, dear boy, you've a face like a slapped nancy.
Dorian Gray Quotes
Extended Reading
