Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish author, poet and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential dramatists in London in the early 1890s. He was a key figure in the emerging Aestheticism movement of the late 19th century and is regarded by many as the greatest playwright of the Victorian era. Wilde is best known for his Gothic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), his epigrams, plays and bedtime stories for children, as well as his criminal conviction in 1895 for gross indecency for homosexual acts.

Quotes

It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art.
To disagree with three-fourths of the British public is one of the first requisites of sanity.

Agreement
Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.

Argument
Work is the curse of the drinking class.
Vile deeds like poison weeds bloom well in prison air, it is only what is good in man, that wastes and withers there.
I have nothing to declare but my genius.
And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats,
None knew so well as I:
For he who lives more lives than one
More deaths than one must die.
I have the simplest of tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
It is only about things that do not interest one that one can give really unbiased opinions, which is no doubt the reason why an unbiased opinion is always valueless.
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing, as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.
A well-tied tie is the first serious step in life.
When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy.
All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their own peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their own peril.
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
Dreamers can find their way by moonlight and their only punishment is that they see the dawn before the rest of the world.
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

America, Civilization
One is tempted to define man as a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any use to oneself.

Advice
While one should always study the method of a great artist, one should never imitate his manner. The manner of an artist is essentially individual, the method of an artist is absolutely universal. The first is personality, which no one should copy; the second is perfection, which all should aim at.
The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death.

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