Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Wilde suggests that artists should not be confined by moral obligations in their work.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde argues that true artistry should be free from the constraints of ethical considerations. He perceives ethical sympathy as a limitation that distorts an artist's style, suggesting that creativity thrives in the absence of such moral encumbrances. The implication is that artists should prioritize their unique expressions over societal expectations or moral judgments.
Themes
ArtCreativityEthicsFreedomExpression
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in an art critique to emphasize the importance of creative freedom.
More from Oscar Wilde
All quotes →London is too full of fogs and serious people. Whether the fogs produce the serious people, or whether the serious people produce the fogs, I don't know.
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When one has never heard a man's name in the course of one's life, it speaks volumes for him; he must be quite respectable.
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Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
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A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.
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His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be
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