“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
Oscar Wilde · Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892
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The books one reads in childhood, and perhaps most of all the bad and good bad books, create in one's mind a sort of false map of the world.
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About this quote
Meaning
Wilde is reflecting on the powerful and often misleading picture of the world that early reading plants in a young mind. The books we encounter as children, whether great literature or cheerful adventure stories of questionable quality, sketch out an emotional and moral landscape before we have real experience to correct it. That inner map can persist for years, shaping expectations and attitudes in ways we may not even notice.
Context
This line comes from De Profundis, a long letter Wilde composed while serving his prison sentence in the 1890s. Published after his death, it is a deeply personal document in which he reflects on love, suffering, artistic purpose, and his own past. The passage on childhood reading fits naturally into the letter's broader project of self-examination, as Wilde tries to understand how his character and imagination were formed. It shows a more introspective side than his stage comedies.
About the author
Oscar Wilde was an Irish writer who became one of the defining literary voices of the Victorian era. Famous for his wit and his theatrical comedies, he was also a serious thinker about art, culture, and individual freedom. De Profundis, written in confinement, reveals the depth of reflection beneath his celebrated surface brilliance. His life ended in poverty and exile in Paris, but his work has endured and grown in reputation with each passing generation.
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