Oscar Wilde: Zitate auf Englisch (seite 10)

Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young (1894)
Variante: The only way to atone for being occasionally a little over-dressed is by being always absolutely over-educated
Quelle: The Importance of Being Earnest
Kontext: The only way to atone for being occasionally a little over-dressed is by being always absolutely over-educated.

Cecily, Act II
Quelle: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

Quelle: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Quoted by George Bernard Shaw in a letter to Ellen Terry, 25 September 1896.
Kontext: On George Bernard Shaw An excellent man: he has no enemies, and none of his friends like him.

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Kontext: The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes. Change is the one quality we can predicate of it. The systems that fail are those that rely on the permanency of human nature, and not on its growth and development. The error of Louis XIV was that he thought human nature would always be the same. The result of his error was the French Revolution. It was an admirable result. All the results of the mistakes of governments are quite admirable.

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part II
Kontext: England has done one thing; it has invented and established Public Opinion, which is an attempt to organize the ignorance of the community, and to elevate it to the dignity of physical force.

What Art really reveals to us is Nature's lack of design, her curious crudities, her extraordinary monotony, her absolutely unfinished condition.
Intentions (1891)

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part II
Kontext: It is to do nothing that the elect exist. Action is limited and relative. Unlimited and absolute is the vision of him who sits at ease and watches, who walks in loneliness and dreams.

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Kontext: If a man approaches a work of art with any desire to exercise authority over it and the artist, he approaches it in such a spirit that he cannot receive any artistic impression from it at all. The work of art is to dominate the spectator: the spectator is not to dominate the work of art. The spectator is to be receptive. He is to be the violin on which the master is to play. And the more completely he can suppress his own silly views, his own foolish prejudices, his own absurd ideas of what Art should be, or should not be, the more likely he is to understand and appreciate the work of art in question.

Review of Herbert Giles translation of the works of Zhuangzi (Chuang Tsu) in The Speaker (8 February 1890)

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Kontext: Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. I am inclined to say that it is the only real mode of individualism that the world has known. Crime, which, under certain conditions, may seem to have created individualism, must take cognisance of other people and interfere with them. It belongs to the sphere of action. But alone, without any reference to his neighbours, without any interference, the artist can fashion a beautiful thing; and if he does not do it solely for his own pleasure, he is not an artist at all.

Quelle: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Quelle: The Picture of Dorian Gray