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Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde Quotes

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Famous Oscar Wilde Quotes

“You do anything in the world to gain a reputation. As soon as you have one, you seem to want to throw it away. It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. A portrait like this would set you far above all the young men in England, and make the old men quite jealous, if old men are ever capable of any emotion.”

ArtArtistThe Picture Of Dorian GrayBasil HallwardLord Henry Wotton
Book:The Picture Of Dorian Gray
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“In his very rejection of art Walt Whitman is an artist. He tried to produce a certain effect by certain means and he succeeded....He stands apart, and the chief value of his work is in its prophecy, not in its performance. He has begun a prelude to larger themes. He is the herald to a new era. As a man he is the precursor of a fresh type. He is a factor in the heroic and spiritual evolution of the human being. If Poetry has passed him by, Philosophy will take note of him.”

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Author:Oscar Wilde
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“There should be a law that no ordinary newspaper should be allowed to write about art. The harm they do by their foolish and random writing it would be impossible to overestimate--not to the artist but to the public.... Without them we would judge a man simply by his work; but at present the newspapers are trying hard to induce the public to judge a sculptor, for instance, never by his statues but by the way he treats his wife; a painter by the amount of his income and a poet by the colour of his necktie.”

MenWayShouldWritingTryingArtHardWould BeLawArtistWifeImpossiblePoetJudgingAmountOrdinaryTreatsHarmFoolishNewspapersIncomePainterInstanceColourStatuesSculptorsTrying HardOverestimateNeckties
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays
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“An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty.”

IfsMenShouldArtAgeBeautifulFormArtistLostTreatsAbstractMeant To BeBeautiful ThingsAutobiographyWere Meant To Be
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts
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“No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.”

IfsArtArtistBusinessActingSeeingArt IsCeaseGreat ArtGreat ArtistFine ArtsArtistryBeing An ArtistCreative ArtFamous ArtistArt And ArtistsArt And CreativityInspirational ArtistCreative ExpressionArtists And CreativityCreating ArtFine ArtistsInspiring ArtInspiring ArtistRelated To CreativityArt LifeArtists MindsArt Expression
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays
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“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.”

ArtBookFeelingsPainArtistPaintingDrinkBeerGrayPortraitsBeing An ArtistPortraitureInspirational ArtistSelf PortraitDorian GreyPortrait Of Dorian GrayPainting And ArtArt LifeArtists Minds
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts
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“Poets are not so scrupulous as you are. They know how useful passion is for publication. Nowadays a broken heart will run to many editions." "I hate them for it," cried Hallward. "An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty. Some day I will show the world what is it; and for that the world shall never see my portrait of Dorian Gray.”

IfsKnowsMenWorldShouldHeartArtShowsRunningAgeBeautifulFormArtistHatePassionLostKnow HowPoetBrokenTreatsI HateAbstractMeant To BeGrayCriedBeautiful ThingsPortraitsAutobiographyPublicationWere Meant To BePortrait Of Dorian Gray
Book:The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Story of a Fashionable Young Man Who Sells His Soul for Eternal Youth and Beauty (Beloved Books Edition)
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“The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. The worse their rhymes are, the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize.”

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Book:Oscar Wilde The Dover Reader
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“I was dominated, soul, brain, and power by you. You became to me the visible incarnation of that unseen ideal whose memory haunts us artists like an exquisite dream.”

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Book:The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Story of a Fashionable Young Man Who Sells His Soul for Eternal Youth and Beauty (Beloved Books Edition)
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“every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself.”

FeelingsArtistAccidentsPainterOccasionsCanvasPortraitsDorian GreyPortrait Of Dorian Gray
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts
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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.”

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Book:The Happy Prince and Other Stories (Illustrated Edition)
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“Alone, and without any reference to his neighbours, without any interference, the artist can fashion a beautiful thing; and if he does not do it solely for his own pleasure, he is not an artist at all.”

IfsDoeBeautifulArtistPleasureCreativityFashionBeautiful ThingsNeighbourBeing AloneInterference
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays
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“The form of government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all. ... One might point out how the Renaissance was great, because it sought to solve no social problem, and busied itself not about such things, but suffered the individual to develop freely, beautifully, and naturally, and so had great and individual artists, and great, individual men. One might point out how Louis XIV, by creating the modern state, destroyed the individualism of the artist.”

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Author:Oscar Wilde
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“They are always asking a writer why he does not write like somebody else, or a painter why he does not paint like somebody else, quite oblivious of the fact that if either of them did anything of the kind he would cease to be an artist.”

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Book:Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis
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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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“While one should always study the method of a great artist, one should never imitate his manner. The manner of an artist is essentially individual, the method of an artist is absolutely universal. The first personality, which no one should copy.”

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Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays
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