All art is quite useless.

The sentence is the last of the Preface, a page of aphorisms that Wilde set before the novel. The preface argues that art exists for itself: “It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.” The final pair prepares the line: “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.” The verdict follows, above Wilde’s signature.

The novel had first appeared in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in July 1890 and was attacked as immoral. Wilde answered, then wrote these aphorisms, published in the Fortnightly Review in March 1891, and placed them at the head of the enlarged book edition.

To a reader who asked what he meant, Wilde explained that art is useless because it aims only to create a mood, just as a flower blossoms for its own joy. The line is the English motto of art for art’s sake.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, preface (last line), 1891

Checked word for word in the work itself.

Read the passage in the work