When bankers get together they talk about art. When artists get together, they talk about money. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
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
Varnishing is the only artistic process with which Royal Academicians are thoroughly familiar. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
A really well-made buttonhole is the only link between Art and Nature. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
I now see that sorrow, being the supreme emotion of which man is capable, is at once the type and test of… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The poet is the supreme artist, for he is the master of colour and of form, and the real musician besides, and… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
What art seeks to disturb is monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Science is out of the reach of morals, for her eyes are fixed upon eternal truths. Art is out of the reach… — 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
Art creates an incomparable and unique effect, and, having done so, passes on to other things. Nature, upon the other hand, forgetting… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Alone, and without any reference to his neighbours, without any interference, the artist can fashion a beautiful thing; and if he does… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
What the worm was to the corpse, his sins would be to the painted image on the canvas. They would mar its… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
In designing the scenery and costumes for any of Shakespeare's plays, the first thing the artist has to settle is the best… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
They are always asking a writer why he does not write like somebody else, or a painter why he does not paint… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. We live in an age when… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me. Why… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“But above all things was it a return to Nature - that formula which seems to suit so many and such diverse… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“For the great eras in the history of the development of all the arts have been eras not of increased feeling or… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Art never expresses anything but itself. It has an independent life, just as thought has, and develops purely on its own lines… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art. — 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
A subject that is beautiful in itself gives no suggestion to the artist. It lacks imperfection. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved. No” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Anything approaching an explanation is always derogatory to a work of art.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“It often seems to me that art conceals the artist far more completely than it ever reveals him.” — 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
