“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.”

—  Oscar Wilde, book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic." by Oscar Wilde?
Oscar Wilde photo
Oscar Wilde812
Irish writer and poet 1854–1900
Oscar Wilde quote: “Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.”

Related quotes

Wallace Stevens photo

“To have nothing to say and to say it in a tragic manner is not the same thing as having something to say.”

Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet

Opus Posthumous (1955), Adagia

Albert Einstein photo

“Something deeply hidden had to be behind things.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Source: Autobiographical Notes

Emile Zola photo

“Sin ought to be something exquisite, my dear boy.”

Emile Zola (1840–1902) French writer (1840-1902)

Nisargadatta Maharaj photo

“To exist means to be something, a thing, a feeling, a thought, an idea. All existence is particular. Only being is universal, in the sense that every being is compatible with every other being. Existences clash, being – never. Existence means becoming, change, birth and death, and birth again, while in being there is silent peace.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) Indian guru

Existence
Source: "I am That." P.62-3.

Bob Dylan photo

“Behind every beautiful thing there's been some kind of pain”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Time Out of Mind (1997), Not Dark Yet

“IF YOU LOOK at life's totality you will notice that every living thing exists for something else. The failure to give and receive is followed first by unconsciousness and then death.”

Barry Long (1926–2003) Australian spiritual teacher and writer

Knowing Yourself: The True in the False (1996)

Victor Hugo photo

“There are plenty who regard a wall behind which something is happening as a very curious thing.”

Victor Hugo book The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Source: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Kshama Sawant photo

“When things are exquisitely beautiful and rare, they shouldn't be privately owned.”

Kshama Sawant (1973) American politician and economist

Quoted in Sarah Stuteville, " You might be a socialist if… An interview with Kshama Sawant http://www.seattleglobalist.com/2012/10/30/you-might-be-a-socialist-if-an-interview-with-kshama-sawant", The Seattle Globalist (October 30, 2012).

“The thing about leaving something behind for the last time is that you rarely realize you're doing it.”

Wendy Mass (1967) American children's writer

Source: The Candymakers

“Every thing in this world exist to wear you down”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Source: Bleach, Volume 21

Related topics