In a very ugly and sensible age, the arts borrow, not from life, but from each other. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
I treated Art as the supreme reality and life as a mere mode of fiction. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The best one can say of modern creative art is that it is just a little less vulgar than reality. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
There are moments when art attains almost to the dignity of manual labor. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
For the canons of good society are, or should be, the same as the canons of art. Form is absolutely essential to… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Love is a more wonderful thing than art.' 'They are both simply forms of imitation,' remarked Lord Henry.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
As for borrowing Mr. Whistler's ideas about art, the only thoroughly original ideas I have heard him express have had reference to… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“was no stain left upon it. It was bright, and glistened. As it had killed the painter, so it would kill the… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Art has no influence upon action. It annihilates the desire to act. It is superbly sterile. The books that the world calls… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Every single work of art is the fulfillment of a prophecy; for every work of art is the conversion of an idea… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“for I wish rather, in this lecture at least, to dwell on the effect that decorative art has on human life -… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Romantic art deals with the exception and with the individual. Good people, belonging as they do to the normal, and so, commonplace… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The fact is, the public make use of the classics of a country as a means of checking the progress of Art.… — 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
“every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“My dear fellow why have you any reason? What odd chaps you painters are. You do anything in the world to gain… — 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
If a work of art is rich and vital and complete, those who have artistic instincts will see its beauty, and those… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“If a work of art is rich and vital and complete, those who have artistic instincts will see its beauty, and those… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Modern pictures are, no doubt, delightful to look at. At least, some of them are. But they are quite impossible to live… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Poets are not so scrupulous as you are. They know how useful passion is for publication. Nowadays a broken heart will run… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The public make use of the classics of a country as a means of checking the progress of Art. They degrade the… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The good we get from art is not what we learn from it; it is what we become through it. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“What the worm was to the corpse, his sins would be to the painted image on the canvas.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The form of government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The true artist is a man who believes absolutely in himself, because he is absolutely himself.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Art, like Nature, has her monsters, things of bestial shape and with hideous voices. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“life having its elaborate masterpieces, just as poetry has, or sculpture, or painting.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. — 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
