To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.

The line closes “Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young”, a string of paradoxes Wilde gave to The Chameleon, an Oxford undergraduate magazine, in December 1894. Just before it come maxims such as “One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art” and “Nero and Narcissus are always with us”, and a lament over the young men who start life with perfect profiles and end by adopting “some useful profession”. The title mocks the improving manuals written for the young.

The Chameleon never had a second issue. In April 1895, during Wilde’s libel action against the Marquess of Queensberry, the defence used the magazine against him, and he was questioned about these very phrases. Weeks later, he was on trial himself.

Wilde also gave the line to Lord Goring, who says it to his butler in An Ideal Husband, first staged in January 1895. Today it is often quoted as a gentle call to self-esteem; Wilde meant it with a smile at vanity.

Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young, published in The Chameleon, 1894

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