The artist is the creator of beautiful things.
To reaveal art and conceal art is the artist's aim.
The critic is he who can translate 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.
They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty.
There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book.
Books are 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 of a 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 to the artist are 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 symbols 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 art is new, complex, and vital.
When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself.
We can forgive a man for making a useless thing as long as he does not admire it. The only use for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensly.
All art is quite useless.

-Oscar Wilde "The Picture of Dorian Gray; Preface"

I'm confused. I might have it...but I'm not sure I get the meaning of it. It sounds smart though, so I wanna hear people's opinions.