There is nothing necessarily dignified about manual labour at all, and most of it is absolutely degrading. – Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism
The moment that an artist takes notice of what other people want, and tries to supply the demand, he ceases to be an artist, and becomes a dull or an amusing craftsman, an honest or dishonest tradesman. – Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism
It was a fatal day when the public discovered that the pen is mightier than the paving-stone, and can be made as offensive as the brickbat. – Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism
In France, in fact, they limit the journalist and allow the artist almost perfect freedom. Here we allow absolute freedom to the journalist, and entirely limit the artist. – Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism
As for begging, it is safer to beg than to take, but it is finer to take than to beg. – Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism
No country produces such badly written fiction, such tedious, common work in the novel form, vulgar plays as in England. – Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism
There are the poor, and amongst them there is no grace of manner, or charm of speech, or civilization, or culture, or refinement in pleasures, or joy of life. – Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism
Shallow speakers and shallow thinkers in pulpits and on platforms often talk about the world’s worship of pleasure, and whine against it. – Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism
The work of art is to dominate the spectator: the spectator is not to dominate the work of art. – Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all. – Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism
Art is Individualism, and Individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. Therein lies its immense value. For what it seeks to disturb is monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine. – Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism
It is only fair to state, with regard to modern journalists, that they always apologize to one in private for what they have written against one in public. – Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism
One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime. – Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism
Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no advance towards civilization. – Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism
Pleasure is Nature’s test, her sign of approval. When man is happy, he is in harmony with himself and his environment. – Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism
