Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
He would stab his best friend for the sake of writing an epigraph on his tombstone.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests the extreme lengths to which an artist might go for the sake of their creative expression, valuing art over personal relationships.
Oscar Wilde's quote reflects a darkly humorous and exaggerated perspective on the sacrifices that one might make for art and the legacy it leaves behind. It underscores the idea that for some, the act of creating and how one is remembered can take precedence over personal bonds, suggesting a complex relationship between artistry and morality.
Themes
ArtSacrificeLegacyRelationshipsCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in an art class to spark discussion on the sacrifices artists make for their work.
More from Oscar Wilde
All quotes βLondon 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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Similar quotes
People are always asking me what my lyrics mean. Does it mean this, does it mean that, that's all anybody wants to know. F**k them, darling. I say what any decent poet would say if you dared ask him to analyze his work: If you see it, dear, then it's there. ... I think my melodies are superior to my lyrics. ... I was never too keen on the British music press. They've called us a supermarket hype, and they used to suggest that we didn't write our own songs.
Freddie MercuryRead
I always panic on the first day of work. You can do all the Stanislavsky-backstory homework, but when that moment arrives and you are in the clothes, hair, and makeup of somebody else, and you're saying the words created by somebody else - I never know how to do it. It's a complete mystery to me.
Richard E. GrantRead
The creator of the new composition in the arts is an outlaw until he is a classic.
Gertrude SteinRead
I don't force it. If you don't have an idea and you don't hear anything going over and over in your head, don't sit down and try to write a song. You know, go mow the lawn...My songs speak for themselves.
Neil YoungRead
We find things beautiful because we recognize them and contrariwise we find things beautiful because their novelty surprises us.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it. There has to be, otherwise it's just not acting. It's lying.
Johnny DeppRead