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Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art.Vice and virtue are the artist’s materials for an art. From the point of view of form, th...more

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The pure and simple truth is, the truth is never pure and simple.

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No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpa...more

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I want to be good. I can't bear the idea of my soul being hideous.

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The heart was made to be broken.

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[Letter to William Ward, 11 July 1878]Dear Boy, Why don’t you write to me? I don’t know what has become of you.As for me I am ruined. The law suit is ...more

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I have been right, Basil, haven’t I, to take my love out of poetry, and to find my wife in Shakespeare’s plays? Lips that Shakespeare taught to speak ...more

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She...can talk brillantly upon any subject provided she knows nothing about it.

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Who, being loved, is poor?

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Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.

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Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful th...more

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You came to me to learn the Pleasure of Life and the Pleasure of Art. Perhaps I am chosen to teach you something much more wonderful, the meaning of S...more

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Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal.

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it is a marvel that those red-roseleaf lips of yours should be made no less for the madness of music and song than for the madness of kissing.

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I'm a man of simple tastes. I'm always satisfied with the best.