Sunday, April 19, 2009

Oscar Wilde's Guide to Modern Living

Advice: Always pass on good advice.

It is the only thing to do with it.

It is never of any use to oneself. An Ideal Husband

I'm eating bad pizza at Great Falls Park. 2009

Americans: The Americans are certainly great hero worshippers, and always take heroes from the criminal classes. Oscar Wilde’s

In America, life is one long expectation. Oscar Wilde’s

In America President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs for ever and ever.

The Soul of Man Under Socialism

All Americans lecture, I believe, I suppose it is something in their climate.

A Woman of No Importance

D.C garden. 2009

Art: A truth in art is that whose contradictory is also true. The True of Masks

The final revelation is that Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art. The Decay of Lying

Art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic. There is a very wide difference. The Soul of Man Under Socialism

The only beautiful things, as somebody one said, are the things that do not concern us.

As long as a thing is useful or necessary to us, or affects us in any way, either for pain or for pleasure, or appeals strongly our sympathies, or vital part of the environment in which we live, it is out side the proper sphere of art. To art’s subject-matter we should be more or less indifferent. The Decay of Lying

To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim. The Picture of Dorian Gray

The proper school to learn art in is not Life but Art. The Decay of Lying

A great artist invents a type, and Life tries to copy it, to reproduce it in a popular form, like an enterprising publisher. The Decay of Lying

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist. The Decay of Lying


We can forgive a man for not making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

The picture of Dorian Gray

All bad art comes from returning to Life and Nature, and elevating them into ideals.

The Decay of Lying

Rudy,Ann and Beth. D.C 2009


Beauty: Beauty reveals everything, because it expresses nothing. The Critic as Artist

Most women are so artificial they have no sense of Art. Most men are so natural that they have no sense of Beauty. Oscar Wilde


All beautiful things belong to the same age. Pen Pencil and Poison

I have found that all ugly things are made by those who strive to make something beautiful, and that all those beautiful things are made by those who strive to make something useful. Oscar Wilde

In Space museum, D.C 2009

Critic: When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

When man acts he is a puppet.

When he describes he is a poet. The Critic as Artist

Popularity is the one insult I have never suffered. The Duchess of Padua

The primary aim of the critic is to see the object as it really is not. Oscar Wilde

Dickens: One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing. Oscar Wilde

Garden in DC, 2009

Dullness: Dullness is the coming of age seriousness.

Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young

Education: Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. The Critic as Artist

Don’t degrade me into the position from giving to useful information. The Critic as Artist

In examination the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer.

Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young


History: The only duty we owe to history is to rewrite it. The Critic as Artist


In Capitol Building

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