The Picture of Dorian Gray Quotes
The 8 most famous lines from Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), each with its speaker and the scene it belongs to. These are the quotes readers underline, copy into essays and put on walls - gathered in one place, explained in a line.
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“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.”
- Lord Henry. The epigram that starts Dorian's fall.
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“I would give my soul for that!”
- Dorian Gray. Wishing the portrait would age in his place.
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“All art is quite useless.”
- Oscar Wilde. The preface's most quoted line.
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“Each of us has Heaven and Hell in him, Basil.”
- Dorian Gray. Before showing the painter the ruined portrait.
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“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
- Lord Henry. Lady Narborough's drawing room.
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“Being natural is simply a pose.”
- Lord Henry. To Basil, on sincerity.
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“I have put too much of myself into it.”
- Basil Hallward. Explaining why he won't exhibit the portrait.
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“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.”
- Narrator. On the cost of beauty and youth.
Why these lines survive
Oscar Wilde’s sentences earn their fame by compression: each line carries the whole book’s argument in a form you can carry in your pocket. Read in order, the 8 quotes above also sketch the novel’s shape - the world it opens, the pressure it applies, the note it ends on. If you meet them before the book, nothing is spoiled beyond mood; if you meet them after, each one lands like a place you have been.
Quote collectors: pair this page with the The Picture of Dorian Gray quiz to see which lines actually stuck, the book club questions when you want to argue about them, or how long the reread takes - about 5 hours and 28 minutes at an average pace. If the lines did their job and you want more of the same nerve, the books like The Picture of Dorian Gray list is next.
Want the whole shelf’s lines? Our Oscar Wilde books in order guide lists every book.
How to use a quotes page
Three honest uses. Before reading: skim the first two quotes to taste the prose - if the voice does not pull you, the book will not either. During: mark which quote you actually reach in the text, because the distance between famous line and lived scene is where a book keeps its secrets. After: pick the one quote you would defend at dinner and check it against the discussion questions - a quote you can argue about is a quote you understood. What a quotes page is not for is replacing the book; five lines of Oscar Wilde are an invitation, not a summary.
More quote collections
Frankenstein quotes, Dracula quotes, Wuthering Heights quotes, Rebecca quotes - or browse quotes from all 133 classics. Then see which of them stuck on the original book quiz.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most famous quote from The Picture of Dorian Gray?
“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.” - the line most readers meet first. The full list above gives the scene for every one of the 8.
How many The Picture of Dorian Gray quotes are here?
8, chosen because they are the lines readers actually underline and repeat - each with who says it and where it lands in the book.
Are these quotes explained?
Yes - every quote carries its speaker and a one-line context, because a quote without its scene loses most of its charge.
Can I use these in an essay or post?
Short quoted lines with attribution are standard fair use in essays and posts. Quote accurately, name the author, and you are on solid ground.
Are these The Picture of Dorian Gray quotes word-for-word accurate?
They are checked against the novel as written, not harvested from quote sites - which is why a few famous “lines” you may have seen elsewhere are missing here: many of those come from film adaptations or paraphrase the prose. What is listed above is the book.