“When I recollect the treasure of friendship that has been bestowed upon me I withdraw all charges against life. If much has been denied me, much, very much has been given. So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart I shall say that life is good.”

“Poverty is the fundamental cause of most of the physical, moral and economic ills of humanity.”

“My share of the work may be limited, but the fact that it is work makes it precious.”

“When all you can feel are the shadows, turn your face towards the sun.”

“I find that fact and fancy look alike across the years that link the past with the present.”

“You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal: except my life, except my life, except my life.”

“Come, Lady, die to live.”

“To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune, Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles, And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep No more; and by a sleep, to say we end The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die to sleep, To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there's the rub.”

“Thus when I come to shape here at this table between my hands the story of my life and set it before you as a complete thing, I have to recall things gone far, gone deep, sunk into this life or that and become part of it; dreams, too, things surrounding me, and the inmates, those old half-articulate ghosts who keep up their hauntings by day and night... shadows of people one might have been; unborn selves.”

“All criticism is a form of autobiography”

“Poets are not so scrupulous as you are. They know how useful passion is for publication. Nowadays a broken heart will run to many editions." "I hate them for it," cried Hallward. "An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty. Some day I will show the world what is it; and for that the world shall never see my portrait of Dorian Gray.”

“To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength,Gives, in your weakness, strength unto your foe,And so your follies fight against yourself.Fear, and be slain--so worse can come to fight;And fight and die is death destroying death,Where fearing dying pays death servile breath.”

“You must not thinkThat we are made of stuff so fat and dullThat we can let our beard be shook with dangerAnd think it pastime.”

“Doubt is a thief that often makes us fear to tread where we might have won.”

“I and my bosom must debate awhile, and then I would no other company.”

“Shine out fair sun, till I have bought a glass, That I may see my shadow as I pass.”

“Oh! that you could turn your eyes towards the napes of your necks, and make but an interior survey of your good selves.”

“The wound of peace is surety, Surety secure.”

“They told me I was everything. 'Tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.”

“How sometimes nature will betray its folly, Its tenderness, and make itself a pastime To harder bosoms!”