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In art, the public accept what has been, because they cannot alter it, not because they appreciate it. They swallow their classics whole, and never taste them.

Oscar Wilde

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Oscar Wilde
Age: 46 †
Born: 1854
Born: October 16
Died: 1900
Died: November 30
Author
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Opinion Journalist
Playwright
Poet
Prosaist
Short Story Writer
Writer
Dublin city
Oscar O'Flahertie Wills Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde
Cannot
Alter
Whole
Appreciate
Never
Accept
Taste
Accepting
Public
Artist
Classics
Art
Swallow

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What the worm was to the corpse, his sins would be to the painted image on the canvas. They would mar its beauty, and eat away its grace. they would defile it, and make it shameful. And yet the thing would still live on. It would be always alive. (Dorian Gray regarding his portrait)
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Every woman is wrong until she cries.
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If art is to have a special train, the critic must keep some seats reserved on it.
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He must have a truly romantic nature, for he weeps when there is nothing at all to weep about.
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As one knows the poet by his fine music, so one can recognize the liar by his rich rhythmic utterance, and in neither case will the casual inspiration of the moment suffice. Here, as elsewhere, practice must precede perfection.
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Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.
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To make a good salad is to be a brilliant diplomatist - the problem is entirely the same in both cases. To know exactly how much oil one must put with one's vinegar.
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It is a vulgar error to suppose that America was ever discovered. It was merely detected.
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The world is made by the singer for the dreamer.
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Every woman is a rebel.
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It's tragic how few people ever 'possess their souls' before they die. 'Nothing is more rare in any man', says Emerson, 'than an act of his own.' It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their life is a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
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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 personality, which no one should copy.
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The truth is never pure and rarely simple.
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Loveless marriages are horrible. But there is one thing worse than an absolutely loveless marriage. A marriage in which there is love, but on one side only faith, but on one side only devotion, but on one side only, and in which of the two hearts one is sure to be broken.
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The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.
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If we're always guided by other people's thoughts, what's the point in having our own?
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One's dreams must be big enough so as not to lose sight of them.
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It's an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be seen in San Francisco. It must be a delightful city and possess all the attractions of the next world
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A man who moralizes is a hypocrite, and a woman who does so is invariably plain.
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Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing.
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