The artist is the creator of beautiful things
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim
The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things
The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography
Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming
This is a fault
Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated
For these there is hope
They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book
Books are either well written, or badly written, that is all
The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass
The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass
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
No artist desires to prove anything
Even things that are true can be proved
No artist has ethical sympathies
An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style
No artist is ever morbid
The artist can express everything
Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art
Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art
From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician
From the point of view of feeling, the actor’s craft is the type
All art is at once surface and symbol
Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril
Those who read the symbol do so at their peril
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors
Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital
When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it
The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely
All art is quite useless

OSCAR WILDE