Quote

The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture and contemplation become almost impossible.

Oscar Wilde

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Impossible
Slaves
Almost
Contemplation
Fact
Horrible
Culture
Requires
Facts
Ugly
Become
Slave
Government
Civilization
Work
Unless
Uninteresting

More quotes by Oscar Wilde

Image
Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.
Oscar Wilde
Image
And, by the way, one of the most delightful things I find in America is meeting a people without prejudice -- everywhere open to the truth.
Oscar Wilde
Image
God grant me the serenity to accept that people are ignorant, the courage to uphold the law when I'm hostile, & the wisdom to realize that murder is illegal.
Oscar Wilde
Image
One has a right to judge a man by the effect he has over his friends.
Oscar Wilde
Image
Public Opinion... an attempt to organize the ignorance of the community, and to elevate it to the dignity of physical force.
Oscar Wilde
Image
We who live in prison, and in whose lives there is no event but sorrow, have to measure time by throbs of pain, and the record of bitter moments.
Oscar Wilde
Image
There can be nothing more frequent than an occasional drink.
Oscar Wilde
Image
That is the mission of art - to make us pause and look at a thing a second time.
Oscar Wilde
Image
We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.
Oscar Wilde
Image
A burnt child loves the fire.
Oscar Wilde
Image
What men call the shadow of the body is not the shadow of the body, but is the body of the soul.
Oscar Wilde
Image
I asked the question for the best reason possible, for the only reason, indeed, that excuses anyone for asking any question - simple curiosity.
Oscar Wilde
Image
It is not wise to find symbols in everything that one sees. It makes life too full of terrors.
Oscar Wilde
Image
In a temple everything should be serious except the thing that is being worshiped.
Oscar Wilde
Image
Philosophy is like a normal personal organizer, but it's smaller than a matchbox.
Oscar Wilde
Image
Love is fed by the imagination, by which we become wiser than we know, better than we feel, nobler than we are: by which we can see life as a whole, by which and by which alone we can understand others in their real and their ideal relation. Only what is fine, and finely conceived can feed love. But anything will feed hate.
Oscar Wilde
Image
All art is quite useless.
Oscar Wilde
Image
One should not be too severe on English novels they are the only relaxation of the intellectually unemployed.
Oscar Wilde
Image
To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.
Oscar Wilde
Image
Nowadays, saying what you really think can be a serious error since one risks being misunderstood.
Oscar Wilde