QuoteProject
The mark of all good art is not that the thing done is done exactly or finely, for machinery may do as much, but that it is worked out with the head and the workman's heart.
Oscar Wilde
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Good art comes from the thoughtful and passionate effort of the artist, not just the precision of technique.

This quote by Oscar Wilde emphasizes that the essence of true art lies in the emotional and intellectual engagement of the artist rather than mere technical skill. It suggests that while machines can replicate tasks with precision, the heart and mind of the artist are indispensable in creating something meaningful and profound, infusing the work with creativity and authenticity.

Themes

ArtCreativityPassionEmotionCraftsmanship

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used during an art class to inspire students to put their heart into their projects.

More from Oscar Wilde

Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
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.
Oscar WildeRead
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.
Oscar WildeRead
Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
Oscar WildeRead
A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.
Oscar WildeRead
His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be
Oscar WildeRead

Similar quotes

To be a writer you have to be out in the world, you have to risk yourself in the world, you have to be immersed in the world, you have to go out looking for it. This becomes harder as you get older because there's less energy, the days are shorter for older people and it's not so easy to go out and immerse oneself in the world outside.
V. S. NaipaulRead
Poems mesmerized me, and I felt better when I was writing them, or trying to - more in touch with something deep and dark within myself.
Edward HirschRead
Because I write fiction, I don't write autobiography, and to me they are very different things. The first-person narrative is a very intimate thing, but you are not addressing other people as 'I' - you are inhabiting that 'I.'
Kate AtkinsonRead
You say a new era in art is preparing; you sensed it coming; continue your studies without weakening. God will do the rest.
Paul CezanneRead
You really, really, really have to love what you are going to do in theater because it is an unmerciful life. It's six days a week. It's eight performances a week. And that's doing the exact same thing over and over and over again.
Harvey FiersteinRead
Charred bits of black silk swirl into the air, and pearls clatter to the stage… I’m in a dress of the exact design of my wedding dress, only it’s the color of coal and made of tiny feathers. Wonderingly, I lift my long, flowing sleeves into the air, and that’s when I see myself on the television screen. Clothed in black except for the white patches on my sleeves. Or should I say my wings. Because Cinna had turned me into a mockingjay.
Suzanne CollinsRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.