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The
artist is the creator of beautiful things.
To
reveal art and conceal the artist is arts aim.
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.
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.
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.
From the
prologue to ‘A Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde.
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