Oscar Wilde wrote:
I want to get to the point when I shall be able to say
quite simply, and without affectation, that the two great
turning-points in my life were when my father sent me to Oxford,
and when society sent me to prison. I will not say that prison
is the best thing that could have happened to me; for that
phrase would savor of too great bitterness toward myself. I
would sooner say or hear it said of me that I was so typical a
child of my age that, in my perversity and for that perversity’s
sake, I turned the good things of my life to evil, and the evil
things of my life to good.
And if I then am not ashamed of my punishment, as I hope not to
be, I shall be able to think, and walk, and live with freedom.
In the very fact that people will recognize me wherever I
go, and know all about my life, as far as its follies go, I
can discern something good for me. It will force on me the
necessity of again asserting myself as an artist, and as soon as
I possibly can. If I can produce only one beautiful work of art
I shall be able to rob malice of its venom, and cowardice of its
sneer, and to pluck out the tongue of scorn by the roots. (Text.)
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