Oscar Wilde Quotes

Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order, and that is why, though I don't believe that only art matters, I do believe in Art for Art's sake.

Art is an end in itself; its values are intrinsic.

For art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for those moments' sake.

All art is quite useless.

When you start to think of the arts as not this thing that is going to get you somewhere in terms of becoming an artist or becoming famous or whatever it is that people do, but rather a way of making being in the world not just bearable, but fascinating, then it starts to get interesting again.

All art is contemporary, if it's alive, and if it's not alive, what's the point of it?

Art does not exist for politics, or for instruction- it exists primarily for pleasure, or it is nothing.

Art for art's sake is dead, if it ever lived.

Although I do not care for the slogan "art for art's sake", there can be no question that what makes a work of fiction safe from larvae and rust is not its social importance but its art, only its art.

Art is to me the glorification of the human spirit, and as such it is the cultural documentation of the time in which it is produced.

There is probably nothing wrong with art for art's sake if we take the phrase seriously, and not take it to mean the kind of poetry written in England forty years ago.

Variety is more than a means of avoiding boredom, since art is more than an entertainment of the senses.

I don't believe that artists really are interested in money. That's not the motivation for art.

Money is something that can be measured; art is not. It's all subjective.

Art is often valuable precisely because it isn't a sensible way to make money.

Art is not an end in itself, but a means of addressing humanity.

Great art - or good art - is when you look at it, experience it and it stays in your mind. I don't think conceptual art and traditional art are all that different.

The beauty of art is that it allows you to slow down, and for a moment, things that once seemed unfamiliar become precious to you.

The activity of art is... as important as the activity of language itself, and as universal.

I think it was Roger Fry who first coined what he took to be a final definition of a work of art, whether it was a painting, building, poem or Hepplewhite chair. He said that the best works of art are finished products that preserve 'a valuable state of mind'.

I don't see art as entertainment.

The entire vitality of art depends upon its being either full of truth, or full of use; and that, however pleasant, wonderful, or impressive it may be in itself, it must yet be of inferior kind, and tend to deeper inferiority, unless it has clearly one of these main objects, either to state a true thing, or to adorn a serviceable one.

Art is an infinitely precious good, a draught both refreshing and cheering which restores the stomach and the mind to the natural equilibrium of the ideal.

Because subjects like literature and art history have no obvious material pay-off, they tend to attract those who look askance at capitalist notions of utility. The idea of doing something purely for the delight of it has always rattled the grey-bearded guardians of the state. Sheer pointlessness has always been a deeply subversive affair.

Part of my gradual education of myself has been to think that there is a deep relationship between the nature of the creature and the worth of the art.