All art is quite useless.
– Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Preface. This quote means that art doesn’t express anything but itself. It has no function beyond being viewed and enjoyed. In 1890, a university student named Bernulf Clegg wrote Wilde asking him to expand on this line in the preface. Wilde replied: "Art is useless because its aim is simply to create a mood. It is not meant to instruct, or to influence action in any way. It is superbly sterile, and the note of its pleasure is sterility."