De Profundis is a long letter written by Wilde in Reading Gaol during his imprisonment, addressed to his former companion Lord Alfred Douglas. It reflects on their friendship, on Wilde's fall from fame, and on suffering, humility and the meaning of his own life. It also contains a famous meditation on Christ as a figure of imagination and sympathy. Sombre, searching and often moving, it shows a very different Wilde from the glittering wit of his plays, and is valued as both memoir and spiritual reflection.
Quotes
To regret one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development. To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's own life.
The only people I would care to be with now are artists and people who have suffered: those who know what beauty is, and those who know what sorrow is.
Where there is sorrow there is holy ground. Some day people will realise what that means.
I am one of those who are made for exceptions, not for laws.