The work of art is to dominate the spectator: the spectator is not to dominate the work of art. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
No work of art ever puts forward views. Views belong to people who are not artists. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
If art is to have a special train, the critic must keep some seats reserved on it. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“It is sometimes said that the tragedy of an artist's life is that he cannot realize his ideal.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
A really well-made buttonhole is the only link between Art and Nature. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Art is not to be taught in Academies. It is what one looks at, not what one listens to, that makes the… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Artists reproduce themselves or each other, with wearisome iteration. But criticism is always moving on, and the critic is always developing. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Absolute catholicity of taste is not without its dangers. It is only an auctioneer who should admire all schools of art. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
In art, the public accept what has been, because they cannot alter it, not because they appreciate it. They swallow their classics… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Charity creates a multitude of sins. Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The only people I would care to be with now are artists and people who have suffered: those who know what beauty… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Bad people are, from the point of view of art, fascinating studies. They represent colour, variety and strangeness. Good people exasperate one's… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Paradox though it may seem - and paradoxes are always dangerous things - it is none the less true that Life imitates… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“had come face to face with some one whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so,… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Aestheticism is a search after the signs of the beautiful. It is the science of the beautiful through which men seek the… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
There should be a law that no ordinary newspaper should be allowed to write about art. The harm they do by their… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Yet, after some time, he wearied of them, and would sit in his box at the opera, either alone or with Lord… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic is he… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“but more often he would be alone, feeling through a certain quick instinct, which was almost a divination, that the secrets of… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde THE PREFACE The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The great and golden rule of art as well as of life, wrote William Blake, is that the more distinct, sharp and… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“This is that CONSOLATION DES ARTS which is the key-note of Gautier’s poetry, the secret of modern life foreshadowed - as indeed… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
It is a pity to make a mystery out of what should most easily be understood. There is nothing occult about the… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make,… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic is he… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“There are few of us who have not sometimes wakened before dawn, either after one of those dreamless nights that make us… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great poet, a really… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“He was conscious—and the thought brought a gleam of pleasure into his brown agate eyes—that it was through certain words of his,… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The true artist is known by what he annexes, and he annexes everything. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
A true artist takes no notice whatever of the public. The public to him are non-existent. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
Bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
“Basil my dear boy puts everything that is charming in him into his work. The consequence is that he has nothing left for life… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
I don't at all like knowing what people say of me behind my back. It makes me far too conceited. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
“If these elements of beauty are real, the whole thing simply appeals to our sense of dramatic effect. Suddenly we find that we are… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
“Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
Men always want to be a womans first love. Women have a more subtle instinct: What they like is to be a mans last… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
Why is it that at a bachelor's establishment the servants invariably drink the champagne. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
Moderation is a fatal thing. Enough is as bad as a meal. More than enough is as good as a feast. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
