Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
Bad art is a great deal worse than no art at all.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Bad art can negatively influence perception and appreciation of true artistic expression.
Oscar Wilde's quote suggests that poorly created art can be more detrimental than the absence of art altogether, as it can mislead audiences, diminish the value of authentic creativity, and obscure the true essence of artistic expression. This highlights the importance of quality in art and its impact on societal values and culture.
Themes
ArtCreativityQualityExpressionInfluence
In practice
Example use cases
During an art critique, one might say this quote to emphasize the need for quality in artistic work.
More from Oscar Wilde
All quotes βLondon is too full of fogs and serious people. Whether the fogs produce the serious people, or whether the serious people produce the fogs, I don't know.
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When one has never heard a man's name in the course of one's life, it speaks volumes for him; he must be quite respectable.
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Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
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A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.
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His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be
Oscar WildeRead
Similar quotes
So now, from this mad passion Which made me take art for an idol and a king I have learnt the burden of error that it bore And what misfortune springs from man's desire... The world's frivolities have robbed me of the time That I was given for reflecting upon God.
MichelangeloRead
Cookery is a wholly unselfish art: as 'art for art's sake' it is unthinkable. A man may sing in his bath every morning without the least encouragement, but no cook can cook just for his or her own sake in a like manner. All good cooks, like all great artists, must have an audience worth cooking for.
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But when I went on the stage to do a show, I would put on makeup because I felt that it enhanced my act; it drew attention to what I was doing.
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I took Punk to be the detonation of some slow-fused projectile buried deep in society's flank a decade earlier, and I took it to be, somehow, a sign.
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The hardest thing with musicians is getting them not to play.
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Modernity signifies the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art of which the other half is the eternal and the immutable.
Charles BaudelaireRead