Transcribed from the 1920 Methuen edition of _Art and Decoration_ by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.lorg [Picture: Public domain book cover] OSCAR WILDE—SHORTER PROSE PIECES CONTENTS PAGE PHRASES AND PHILOSOPHIES FOR THE USE OF THE YOUNG 1 MRS. LANGTRY AS HESTER GRAZEBROOK 53 SLAVES OF FASHION 56 WOMAN’S DRESS 60 MORE RADICAL IDEAS UPON DRESS REFORM 66 COSTUME 80 THE AMERICAN INVASION 83 SERMONS IN STONES AT BLOOMSBURY 90 L’ENVOI 119 PHRASES AND PHILOSOPHIES FOR THE USE OF THE YOUNG (December 1894) THE first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered. Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others. If the poor only had profiles there would be no difficulty in solving the problem of poverty. Those who see any difference between soul and body have neither. A really well-made buttonhole is the only link between Art and Nature. Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions. The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves. Nothing that actually occurs is of the smallest importance. Dulness is the coming of age of seriousness. In all unimportant matters, style, not sincerity, is the essential. In all important matters, style, not sincerity, is the essential. If one tells the truth one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out. Pleasure is the only thing one should live for. Nothing ages like happiness. It is only by not paying one’s bills that one can hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes. No crime is vulgar, but all vulgarity is crime. Vulgarity is the conduct of others. Only the shallow know themselves. Time is waste of money. One should always be a little improbable. There is a fatality about all good resolutions. They are invariably made too soon. The only way to atone for being occasionally a little overdressed is by being always absolutely overeducated. To be premature is to be perfect. Any preoccupation with ideas of what is right or wrong in conduct shows an arrested intellectual development. Ambition is the last refuge of the failure. A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it. In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer. Greek dress was in its essence inartistic. Nothing should reveal the body but the body. One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.