The Picture Of Dorian Gray 3

"He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time."

Here, it is said that Lord Henry is purposely always late. He thinks that being on time and prompt is the thief of time, so he chooses to be late. Strangely he is always saying that he is going to be late and that he must go, but it is just a cover up because he ends up staying where he is now and being late to his next engagement, purposely. This is a part of his movement because he is purposely trying to act in the way that everyone else would not dare too. No one else would dare be late so, he is late. He is trying so hard to be different and a bad influence.

'"My dear boy, the people who love only once in their lives are really the shallow people. What they call their loyalty, and their fidelity, I call either the lethargy of custom or their lack of imagination. Faithfulness is to the emotional life what consistency is to the life of the intellect--simply a confession of failure"'

Here, Lord Henry again says the exact opposite to what most of the world believes. Most people believe that you should only love one person and love them for the rest of your life, but he thinks that they are shallow, and that you should love as much as you can, when most people would actually think that as shallow. He thinks that people who love once have no imagination, and that faithful people are just heading towards failure. Where as most people believe that being unfaithful will lead you to failure and that being able to love once is using imagination because you are able to love that same person for the many, many years and still find something joyous, new and interesting in them everyday.

frangipanni - any of various tropical American deciduous shrubs or trees of the genus Plumeria having milky sap and showy fragrant funnel-shaped variously colored flowers

esprit - sprightliness of spirit or wit; lively intelligence