The artist is the creator of beautiful things

The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. That is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art

Those who go beneath the surface do so at their own peril

I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvelous to us

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one

I suppose it comes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves

The value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it

Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind, and poisons us

And beauty is a form of genius — is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul

Because to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul

But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face

Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know

Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love’s tragedies

All art is quite useless

I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects

There is not doubt that genius lasts longer than beauty

Celebrated novel traces the moral degeneration of a handsome young Londoner from an innocent fop into a cruel and reckless pursuer of pleasure and, ultimately, a murderer. As Dorian Gray sinks into depravity, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait reflects the ravages of crime and sensuality.

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Learning & Education

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Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet, and author of numerous short stories, and one novel. Known for his biting wit, and a plentitude of aphorisms, he became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. Several of his plays continue to be widely performed, especially The Importance of Being Earnest. As the result of a widely covered series of trials, Wilde suffered a dramatic downfall and was imprisoned for two years hard labour after being convicted of "gross indecency" with other men. After Wilde was released from prison he set sail for Dieppe by the night ferry. He never returned to Ireland or Britain, and died in poverty.

OSCAR WILDE

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