Beauty is a form of genius – is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or spring-time, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has its divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it.
– Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. Lord Henry says this to Dorian. Henry is the greatest facilitator of Dorian’s vanity, elevating his physical beauty to something above genius.