Skip to content

The fact is, that the public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesmanlike habits, supplies their demands

— Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

Another quote →

Topics

Journalism

More quotes by Oscar Wilde

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)

The English country gentleman galloping after a fox — the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.

A Woman of No Importance (1893)

A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. [Answering the question, what is a cynic?]

Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)

I have always been of opinion that a man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing.

The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious. Both are disappointed.

A Woman of No Importance (1893)

All Oscar Wilde quotes →

You may also like

To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week’s newspapers.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

Journalists who make mistakes get sued for libel; historians who make mistakes get to publish a revised edition.

Bill Moyers

In a world where everyone is a publisher, no one is an editor and that is the danger we face today.

Scott Pelley

Every newspaper editor owes tribute to the devil.

Jean de La Fontaine Lettre à Simon de Troyes (1686)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Oscar Wilde (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.