The fact is, the public make use of the classics of a country as a means of checking the progress of Art. They degrade the classics into authorities. They use them as bludgeons for preventing the free expression of Beauty in new forms.

It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done.

If God wished to punish us, all he would need to do would be to answer our prayers.

The moon in her chariot of pearl

Only mediocrities progress. An artist revolves in a cycle of masterpieces, the first of which is no less perfect than the last.

She knew nothing, but she had everything that he had lost.

What a fuss people make about fidelity!" exclaimed Lord Henry. "Why, even in love it is purely a question for physiology. It has nothing to do with our own will. Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot: that is all one can say.