The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. From the point of view of feeling, the actor’s craft is the type. From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art. Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass. Books are well written, or badly written. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.

They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim. The artist is the creator of beautiful things. Oscar Wilde, excerpt from The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) Oscar Wilde and his lover Lord Alfred Douglas.

Wrought flesh price