Wilde, Oscar. Preface. The Picture of Dorian Gray. 1891. Ware: Wordsworth Classics, 2001. 3-4.

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. 3

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. 3

Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. 3

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. 4