The work of art is to dominate the spectator: the spectator is not to dominate the work of art. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
When bankers get together they talk about art. When artists get together, they talk about money. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Varnishing is the only artistic process with which Royal Academicians are thoroughly familiar. — 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
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
The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. — 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
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
Art never harms itself by keeping aloof from the social problems of the day: rather, by so doing, it more completely realises… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“If I can produce only one beautiful work of art I shall be able to rob malice of its venom, and cowardice… — 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
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
For an artist to marry his model is as fatal as for a gourmet to marry his cook: the one gets no… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“An educated person's ideas of Art are drwan naturally from what Art has been, whereas the new work of art is beautiful… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Freedom, individualism and being yourself so long as you don't hurt another's physical person or property: The true artist is a man… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“producing a kind of momentary Japanese effect, and making him think of those pallid, jade-faced painters of Tokyo who, through the medium… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Nothing, indeed, is more dangerous to the young artist than any conception of ideal beauty: he is constantly led by it either… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The past is of no importance. The present is of no importance. It is with the future that we have to deal.… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Nothing really at any period of my life was ever of the smallest importance to me compared with Art. But in the… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
It is sometimes said that the tragedy of an artist's life is that he cannot realise his ideal. But the true tragedy… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Cyril: surely you would acknowledge that art expresses the temper of its age, the spirit of its time, the moral and social… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The public has always, and in every age, been badly brought up. They are continually asking Art to be popular, to please… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Perhaps there may come into my art also, no less than into my life, a still deeper note, one of greater unity… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“For the good we get from art is not what we learn from it; it is what we become through it. Its… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“He is all my art to me now," said the painter gravely. "I sometimes think, Harry, that there are only two eras… — 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
“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
“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
Technique is really personality. That is the reason why the artist cannot teach it, why the pupil cannot learn it, and why… — 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
