Quotes about Identity

Well, I can't help going to see Sibyl play, even if it is only for an act. I get hungry for her presence; and when I think of the wonderful soul that is hidden away in that little ivory body, I am filled with awe. You can dine with me to-night, Dorian, can't you? He shook his head. To night she is Imogen, he answered, and tomorrow night she will be Juliet. When is she Sibyl Vane? Never. I congratulate you.

For the recognition of private property has really harmed Individualism, and obscured it, by confusing a man with what he possesses.  It has led Individualism entirely astray.  It has made gain not growth its aim.  So that man thought that the important thing was to have, and did not know that the important thing is to be.  The true perfection of man lies, not in what man has, but in what man is.

At every single moment of one's life one is what one is going to be no less than what one has been.

There is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence. I pity any poor woman whose husband is not called Ernest.

We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography.

People are so annoying. All my pianists look exactly like poets; and all my poets look exactly like pianists.

A man whose desire is to be something separate from himself, to be a member of Parliament, or a successful grocer, or a prominent solicitor, or a judge, or something equally tedious, invariably succeeds in being what he wants to be.  That is his punishment.  Those who want a mask have to wear it.

My dear fellow, it isn't easy to be anything nowadays. 

The whole of Japan is a pure invention. There is no such country, there are no such people.

You can dine with me to-night, Dorian, can't you?" He shook his head. "To-night she is Imogen," he answered, "and to-morrow night she will be Juliet." "When is she Sibyl Vane?" "Never." "I congratulate you.

I wish I could love," cried Dorian Gray with a deep note of pathos in his voice. "But I seem to have lost the passion and forgotten the desire. I am too much concentrated on myself. My own personality has become a burden to me.

I am a woman. Every artist is a woman and should have a taste for other women. Artists who are homosexual cannot be true artists because they like men, and since they themselves are women they are reverting to normality.