“Anything approaching an explanation is always derogatory to a work of art.” — 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
“It often seems to me that art conceals the artist far more completely than it ever reveals him.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
What is abnormal in Life stands in normal relations to Art. It is the only thing in Life that stands in normal… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“But in the case of an artist, weakness is nothing less than a crime, when it is a weakness that paralyses the… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
A temperament capable of receiving, through an imaginative medium, and under imaginative conditions, new and beautiful impressions, is the only temperament that… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
What the artist is always looking for is the mode of existence in which soul and body are one and indivisible: in… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The moment that an artist takes notice of what other people want, and tries to supply the demand, he ceases to be… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Art is always more abstract than we fancy. Form and colour tell us of form and colour - that is all. It… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Things are because we see them, and what we see, and how we see it, depends on the Arts that influenced us.… — 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
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
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
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
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
The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic. — 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 best art is about individualism, free self-expression and realising a unique, imaginative perspective- A true artist takes no notice whatever of… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“As the painter looked at the gracious and comely form he had so skilfully mirrored in his art, a smile of pleasure… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
We spend our days, each one of us, in looking for the secret of life. Well, the secret of life is in… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The only thing that the artist cannot see is the obvious. The only thing that the public can see is the obvious. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“I am quite incapable of understanding how any work of art can be criticized from a moral standpoint. The sphere of art… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament. Its beauty comes from the fact that the author is… — 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
