Quotes About Meaning

I don't think that you should tell me that you love me wildly, passionately, devotedly, hopelessly.  Hopelessly doesn't seem to make much sense, does it?

It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style.

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there are hope.

Bad art is a great deal worse than no art at all.

The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you.

I never quarrel with actions. My one quarrel is with words

I am not a Pessimist. Indeed I am not sure that I quite know what Pessimism really means. All I do know is that life cannot be understood without much charity, it cannot be lived without much charity. It is love, and not German philosophy, that is the true explanation of this world, whatever may be the explanation of the next.

You came to me to learn the Pleasure of Life and the Pleasure of Art. Perhaps I am chosen to teach you something much more wonderful, the meaning of Sorrow and its beauty.

Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.

To cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul.

Besides, if Hans came here, he might ask me to let him have some flour on credit, and that I could not do. Flour is one thing, and friendship is another, and they should not be confused. Why, the words are spelled differently, and mean quite different things. Everyone can see that.

Looking good and dressing well is a necessity. Having a purpose in life is not.

Nothing that actually occurs is of the smallest importance.

And if life be, as it surely is, a problem to me, I am no less a problem to life.

Mere words.. Was there anything so real as words?

The real tragedies of life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style.

The artist is the creator of beautiful things.    To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.      The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

Intellectual generalities are always interesting, but generalities in morals mean absolutely nothing.

The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless. OSCAR WILDE

Was there anything so real as words?

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.

Anything approaching an explanation is always derogatory to a work of art.

It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. Names are everything. I never quarrel with actions. My one quarrel is with words. That is the reason why I hate vulgar realism in literature. The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. It is the only thing he is fit for.

No one in particular. A man of no importance. CURTAIN