“ At every single moment of one’s life one is what one is going to be no less than what one has been. Art is a symbol, because man is a symbol. ”
Oscar Wilde, De Profundis (1905). copy citation
| Author | Oscar Wilde |
|---|---|
| Source | De Profundis |
| Topic | art life |
| Date | 1905 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/921/921-h/921-h.htm |
Context
“in the prose poem of the man who from the bronze of the image of the ‘Pleasure that liveth for a moment’ has to make the image of the ‘Sorrow that abideth for ever’ it is incarnate. It could not have been otherwise. At every single moment of one’s life one is what one is going to be no less than what one has been. Art is a symbol, because man is a symbol.
It is, if I can fully attain to it, the ultimate realisation of the artistic life. For the artistic life is simply self-development. Humility in the artist is his frank acceptance of all experiences, just as love in the artist is simply the sense of beauty that reveals to the world its body and its soul.”
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