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Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde Quotes

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Famous Oscar Wilde Quotes

“I made art a philosophy, and philosophy an art: I altered the minds of men, and the colour of things: I awoke the imagination of my century so that it created myth and legend around me: I summed up all things in a phrase, all existence in an epigram: whatever I touched I made beautiful”

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Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis,
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“You have killed my love. You used to stir my imagination. Now you don't even stir my curiosity. You simply produce no effect. I loved you because you were marvelous, because you had genius and intellect, because you realized the dreams of great poets and gave shape and substance to the shadows of art. You have thrown it all away. You are shallow and stupid”

ArtDreamUsedImaginationEffectsLove YouStupidProducePoetGeniusShapesShadowCuriosityIntellectSubstanceThrownGrayMarvelousShallowMy ImaginationI Loved YouGreat PoetPortrait Of Dorian Gray
Author:Oscar Wilde
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“The ugly and stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live-- undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet. They never bring ruin upon others, nor ever receive it from alien hands. Your rank and wealth, Henry; my brains, such as they are-- my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray's good looks-- we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.”

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Book:Oscar Wilde Collection
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“She has form," he said to himself, as he walked away through the grove - "that cannot be denied to her; but has she got feeling? I am afraid not. In fact, she is like most artists; she is all style, without any sincerity. She would not sacrifice herself for others. She thinks merely of music, and everybody knows that arts are selfish. Still, it must be admitted that she has some beautiful notes in her voice. What a pity it is that they do not mean anything, or do any practical good.”

ThinkingKnowsMeanArtSaidStillsFactsFeelingsBeautifulFormArtistVoiceSacrificeStyleNotesSelfishPracticalsPitySincerityDeniedGrove
Book:The Happy Prince and Other Stories (Illustrated Edition)
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“Romance lives by repetition, and repetition converts an appetite into an art. Besides, each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it. We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible.”

LifeDoeArtRomanceLife IsPassionDifferencesLove IsSecretObjectsArt IsLive ByAppetiteRepetitionOne LoveOnly TimeSecret LifeGreat ExperiencesSingleness
Book:The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings
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“It is a pity to make a mystery out of what should most easily be understood. There is nothing occult about the thought that all things maybe made well or made ill. A work of art is a well-made thing - that is all. It may be a well-made statue of a well-made chair or a well-made book. Art is not a special sauce applied to ordinary cooking; it is the cooking itself that is good. Most simply and generally, Art may be thought of as "The Well Doing of What Needs Doing."”

NeedsShouldWellsMayArtMadeBookMysterySpecialOrdinaryUnderstoodArt IsAll ThingsCookingIllPityChairsWorks Of ArtStatuesCarpe DiemSauceOccultCarpe
Author:Oscar Wilde
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“Your machinery is beautiful. Your society people have apologized to me for the envious ridicule with which your newspapers have referred to me. Your newspapers are comic but never amusing. Your Water Tower is a castellated monstrosity with pepperboxes stuck all over it. I am amazed that any people could so abuse Gothic art and make a structure not like a water tower but like a tower of a medieval castle. It should be torn down. It is a shame to spend so much money on buildings with such an unsatisfactory result. Your city looks positively dreary.”

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Author:Oscar Wilde
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“All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself.”

ArtShowsArtistOpinionDiversityArt IsMirrorsComplexesCriticsSurfaceSymbolsWorks Of ArtDisagreeSpectatorsPerilAccordBeneath The Surface
Book:The Picture Of Dorian Gray
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“Technique is really personality. That is the reason why the artist cannot teach it, why the pupil cannot learn it, and why the aesthetic critic can understand it. To the great poet, there is only one method of music - his own. To the great painter, there is only one manner of painting - that which he himself employs. The aesthetic critic, and the aesthetic critic alone, can appreciate all forms and all modes. It is to him that Art makes her appeal.”

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Book:The critic as artist (low cost). Limited edition
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“Bad artists always admire each other's work. They call it being large-minded and free from prejudice. But a truly great artist cannot conceive of life being shown, or beauty fashioned, under any conditions other than those he has selected.”

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Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays
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“Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine. It seeks to show new perspectives and other choices. It is a way to help expand and liberate the consciousness; our experiences, understandings, imaginings, options and thereby our lives.”

MenWayArtHelpingShowsLyingValuesChoicesForceUnderstandingLevelsConsciousnessOur LivesPerspectiveTypeHabitArt IsMachinesSlaveryTyrannyCustomsIndividualismImmenseDisturbingReductionMonotonyNew Perspective
Author:Oscar Wilde
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“A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament. Its beauty comes from the fact that the author is what he is. ...Art is the most intense mode of Individualism that the world has known. I am inclined to say that it is the only real mode of Individualism that the world has known. ...Art is Individualism.”

WorldArtRealFactsResultsKnownUniqueArt IsIntenseWorks Of ArtIndividualismTemperament
Book:The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde
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“Nothing, indeed, is more dangerous to the young artist than any conception of ideal beauty: he is constantly led by it either into weak prettiness or lifeless abstraction: whereas to touch the ideal at all you must not strip it of vitality. You must find it in life and re-create it in art.”

ArtYoungArtistDangerousIdealsWeakConceptionAbstractionVitalityLifelessYoung ArtistsPrettiness
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays
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“In spite of the roaring of the young lions at the Union, and the screaming of the rabbits in the home of the vivisect, in spite of Keble College, and the tramways, and the sporting prints, Oxford still remains the most beautiful thing in England, and nowhere else are life and art so exquisitely blended, so perfectly made one.”

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Book:A Critic in Pall Mall: Being Extracts from Reviews and Miscellanies
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