Aubrey Beardsley

“Surely I have been a great sinner. In the name of Jesus, mercy, mercy.”

“How few of us have souls of our own.”

“By God, I will be a great artist.”

“I have one aim—the grotesque. If I am not grotesque, I am nothing.”

“Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.”

“I am working at the same thing as ever, the grotesque, and I get a little nearer to it every day.”

“I struck a new note.”

“All humanity inspires me. Every passer-by is my unconscious sitter; and as physical beauty presents itself so seldom, I draw men and women with bodies and features of my own designing.”

“I am just a penciller.”

“Strange as it may seem, I have no appreciation of the beautiful in music. It is a world of sound to which I am hopelessly deaf.”

“I implore you to destroy all copies of Lysistrata and bad drawings... by all that is holy all obscene drawings.”