The only beautiful things are the things that do not concern us.
 Oscar Wilde, Intentions (1891). copy citation

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Author Oscar Wilde
Source Intentions
Topic concern
Date 1891
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/887/887-h/887-h.htm

Context

“As a method Realism is a complete failure, and the two things that every artist should avoid are modernity of form and modernity of subject-matter. To us, who live in the nineteenth century, any century is a suitable subject for art except our own. The only beautiful things are the things that do not concern us. It is, to have the pleasure of quoting myself, exactly because Hecuba is nothing to us that her sorrows are so suitable a motive for a tragedy. Besides, it is only the modern that ever becomes old-fashioned.” source