4 quotations linked to The Picture of Dorian Gray — 1890 magazine text by or associated with Oscar Wilde, with source notes, explanations and related topics.
Beauty, value, reputation, temptation, influence, youth and aesthetic provocation in the shorter first-published magazine version of the novel.
Dates represented in this collection: 1890. Individual quotation notes provide the most specific context for a passage.
Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.
“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.”
The line is a deliberately seductive paradox rather than practical advice, expressing the character’s philosophy of appetite and indulgence.
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.
“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
The distinction between price and value criticizes a way of thinking that can measure cost while missing significance.
The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890 Lippincott magazine text, Chapter 3; Lord Henry gives the price-and-value epigram after describing a bargain for old brocade.
“Beauty is a form of Genius—is higher, indeed, than Genius, as it needs no explanation.”
Lord Henry’s deliberately provocative claim treats beauty as immediate and self-justifying; the novel later complicates that confidence by showing the cost of worshipping appearance.
The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890 Lippincott magazine text, Chapter 2; Lord Henry praises Dorian’s beauty and youth.
“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
The joke exposes the appetite for attention by suggesting that even negative notice can seem preferable to complete social invisibility.
The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890 Lippincott magazine text, Chapter 1; Lord Henry gives the reputation paradox while discussing Basil Hallward’s portrait.
