Oscar Wilde Quotes About Authority

• Wherever there is a man who exercises authority, there is a man who resists authority.

  Oscar Wilde

  Leadership, Exercise, Power

  Oscar Wilde, Isobel Murray (1999). “The Soul of Man, and Prison Writings”, p.8, Oxford University Press, USA

• All modes of government are failures. Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things. Oligarchies are unjust to the many, and ochlocracies are unjust to the few. High hopes were once formed of democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. It has been found out. I must say that it was high time, for all authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and degrades those over whom it is exercised.

  Oscar Wilde

  Mean, Exercise, Government

  "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" (1891)

• Progress in thought is the assertion of individualism against authority.

  Oscar Wilde

  Liberty, Progress, Individualism

  Oscar Wilde, Nicholas Frankel (2011). “The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition”, p.94, Harvard University Press

• As one reads history, not in the expurgated editions written for schoolboys and passmen, but in the original authorities of each time, one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.

  Oscar Wilde

  Punishment, Community, Political

  Oscar Wilde (2016). “Aphorisms”, p.50, Oscar Wilde

• Authority is quite degrading.

  Oscar Wilde

  Authority, Degrading

  "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" (1891)

• There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad.

  Oscar Wilde

  Authority, Monarchs

  Oscar Wilde (2016). “Aphorisms”, p.62, Oscar Wilde

• The fact is, the public make use of the classics of a country as a means of checking the progress of Art. They degrade the classics into authorities. They use them as bludgeons for preventing the free expression of Beauty in new forms.

  Oscar Wilde

  Beauty, Country, Art

  Oscar Wilde (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Illustrated)”, p.1653, Delphi Classics

• The form of government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all. Authority over him and his art is ridiculous.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Government, Ridiculous

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.282, University of Chicago Press

• All authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and it degrades those over whom it is exercised.

  Oscar Wilde

  Exercise, Authority, Degrading

  "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" (1891)

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