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The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
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“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.”

Oscar Wilde

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Source
The Picture of Dorian Gray — 1890 magazine text
Date
1890
Local voice
Fictional character · Lord Henry Wotton
Meaning

Meaning of “The only way to get rid of a…”

The line is a deliberately seductive paradox rather than practical advice, expressing the character’s philosophy of appetite and indulgence.

Source context

Where does it come from?

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890 Lippincott magazine text, Chapter 2; Lord Henry states the temptation paradox while influencing Dorian in Basil Hallward’s garden.

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Speaker context

Why the local voice matters

Lord Henry says this to Dorian during their early conversation in Basil Hallward’s garden/studio sequence.

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Themes

Ideas connected with this quotation

DeepFunnyPhilosophyResponsibilitySelf-Control Quotes About Restraint & JudgmentShortThought-Provoking Quotes That Invite ReflectionCharacterPleasureWords of Wisdom: Practical & Philosophical Counsel
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Source identified
The superior man is satisfied and composed; the mean man is always full of distress.
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“The superior man is satisfied and composed; the mean man is always full of distress.”

Confucius · The Analects of Confucius · ancient
Meaning & context

The contrast treats composure as a feature of cultivated character rather than as freedom from all difficulty: the “superior man” is represented as settled enough not to live in continual inward distress.

Source details

The Analects of Confucius, Book VII, Chapter XXXVI, James Legge translation, Project Gutenberg #3330.

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Then we must do no wrong?
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“Then we must do no wrong?”

Plato · Crito · c. 399 BCE
Voice: Dialogue speaker · Socrates
Meaning & context

The brief question tests whether the previously accepted principle against wrongdoing still holds when obedience to it becomes personally costly.

Source details

Crito, Benjamin Jowett translation; Socrates is testing the moral premises that will govern his decision about escaping prison.

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The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
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“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

Oscar Wilde · The Importance of Being Earnest · 1895
Voice: Fictional character · Algernon Moncrieff
Meaning & context

Wilde resists neat moral simplification by reminding the reader that truth often arrives mixed with context and contradiction.

Source details

The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I; Algernon Moncrieff. Exact catalog wording is preserved in the scan-backed Samuel French acting text on Wikisource, scan leaf 14 / printed page 12. The acting-text witness is abridged elsewhere, so this record is bound only to its independently verified page.

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Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.
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“Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.”

John Milton · Paradise Lost · 1667
Voice: Fictional character · Satan
Meaning & context

The line expresses proud rebellion and the desire for autonomy, but its speaker and context make that ambition morally complicated.

Source details

Paradise Lost (1667), Book I, line 263; Satan says he would rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. This collection retains normalized modern orthography; the first-edition transcription has ‘then’ and ‘Heav’n.’ This is dramatic character speech, not Milton’s direct endorsement.

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Virtue then is a state apt to exercise deliberate choice, being in the relative mean, determined by reason.
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“Virtue then is a state apt to exercise deliberate choice, being in the relative mean, determined by reason.”

Aristotle · Nicomachean Ethics · 4th century BCE
Meaning & context

Virtue is treated as a stable capacity for deliberate choice, guided by practical judgment rather than by extremes of impulse or deficiency.

Source details

Nicomachean Ethics, Book II, Chapter VI; the public-domain English translation defines virtue through deliberate choice and the relative mean.

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