He covered page after page with wild words of sorrow and wilder words of pain. 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.
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The Picture of Dorian Gray by
Oscar Wilde
"How dreadful!" cried Lord Henry. "I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect."
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The Picture of Dorian Gray by
Oscar Wilde
"She behaves as if she was beautiful. Most American women do. It is the secret of their charm."
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The Picture of Dorian Gray by
Oscar Wilde
He was a hero to his valet, who bullied him, and a terror to most of his relations, whom he bullied in turn. Only England could have produced him, and he always said that the country was going to the dogs. His principles were out of date, but there was a good deal to be said for his prejudices.
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The Picture of Dorian Gray by
Oscar Wilde
He paid some attention to the management of his collieries in the Midland counties, excusing himself for this taint of industry on the ground that the one advantage of having coal was that it enabled a gentleman to afford the decency of burning wood on his own hearth.
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The Picture of Dorian Gray by
Oscar Wilde
"Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot."
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The Picture of Dorian Gray by
Oscar Wilde
"Those who are faithful know only the pleasures of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies."
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The Picture of Dorian Gray by
Oscar Wilde
"There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
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The Picture of Dorian Gray by
Oscar Wilde
"I know what conscience is, to begin with. It is not what you told me it was. It is the divinest thing in us. Don't sneer at it, Harry, any more,--at least not before me. I want to be good. I can't bear the idea of my soul being hideous."
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The Picture of Dorian Gray by
Oscar Wilde
"How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June. . . . If it was only the other way! If it was I who were to be always young, and the picture that were to grow old! For this--for this--I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give!"
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The Picture of Dorian Gray by
Oscar Wilde
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