Hedonism

The only way…

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it (Lord Henry, Chapter 2

Nothing can…

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul (Lord Henry, Chapter 2)

I can sympathise…

I can sympathise with everything except suffering…it is too ugly, too horrible, too distressing (Lord Henry, Chapter 3, at Aunt Agatha’s house)

Pleasure…

Pleasure is the only thing worth having a feeling about (Lord Henry, to Basil and Dorian, Chapter 6)

During the three….

During the three terrible hours that the play had lasted, he had lived centuries of pain, aeon upon aeon of torture… She had marred him for a moment if he had wounded her for an age. (Dorian’s response to his cruelty to Sybil, Chapter 7)

I don’t want to be…

I don’t want to at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, to dominate them. (Chapter 9, Dorian discusses Sybil’s suicide with Basil)