"We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind, and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
The Picture of Dorian Gray
162 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by The Picture of Dorian Gray →
Related Quotes
"The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim."
"The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things. The high…"
"Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find …"
"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all."
"The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass. The nineteenth centu…"
"The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect…"
"No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved."
"From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feelin…"
"All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symb…"
"Conscience and cowardice are really the same things … Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all."