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For the canons of good society are, or should be, the same as the canons of art. Form is absolutely essential to it.
Oscar Wilde
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Art and society should uphold the same standards of beauty and structure, emphasizing the importance of form.

Oscar Wilde suggests that the principles guiding good society should mirror those that govern art, underscoring the significance of form in both realms. This viewpoint posits that just as art requires a strong form to convey meaning and beauty, society too must adhere to these standards to cultivate an environment of aesthetic and moral value.

Themes

ArtSocietyFormBeautyStandards

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech on creativity and society, one might quote Wilde to highlight the interrelation of aesthetics and social values.

More from Oscar Wilde

Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
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London 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
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