Essay by Wilde In all unimportant matters, style, not sincerity, is the essential. In all important matters, style, not sincerity, is the essential. Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others. The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered. Nothing that actually occurs is of the smallest importance. Pleasure is the only thing one should live for. Nothing ages like happiness. One should always be a little improbable. The only way to atone for being occasionally a little over-dressed is by being always absolutely over-educated. To be premature is to be perfect. Any preoccupation with ideas of what is right and wrong in conduct shows an arrested intellectual development. One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art. The condition of perfection is idleness: the aim of perfection is youth. Only the great masters of style ever succeed in being obscure. To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance. Wilde