Oscar Wilde on Graduation
1854–1900
← All quotes by Oscar Wilde
6 quotes
We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.
The thoroughly well-informed man—that is the modern ideal. And the mind of the thoroughly well-informed man is a dreadful thing. It is like a bric-à-brac shop, all monsters and dust, with everything priced above its proper value.
A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
The Critic as Artist (1891)
Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated (1894)
The aim of life is self-development. To realize one’s nature perfectly—that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one’s self. Of course, they are charitable. They feed the hungry and clothe the beggar. But their own souls starve, and are naked.
No, Ernest, don't talk about action. It is a blind thing dependent on external influences, and moved by an impulse of whose nature it is unconscious. It is a thing incomplete in its essence, because limited by accident, and ignorant of its direction, being always at variance with its aim. Its basis is the lack of imagination. It is the last resource of those who know not how to dream.