This is maybe one of the most important pieces on socialism outside of literature written by Marx and Engels themselves. Oscar Wilde speaks of truths in this piece that are so timeless that they ring true today. As he says, "'Know thyself' was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, 'Be thyself' shall be written. And the message of Christ to man was simply 'Be thyself.' That is the secret of Christ." Such eloquent words from a man who was so thoroughly mistreated by the very society that he derides in this essay.