“The one thing that the public dislike is novelty. Any attempt to extend the subject matter of art is extremely distasteful to the public; and yet the vitality and progress of art depend in a large measure on the continual extension of subject-matter. The public dislike novelty because they are afraid of it. It represents to them a mode of Individualism, an assertion on the part of the artist that he selects his own subject, and treats it as he chooses.”

—  Oscar Wilde , book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

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Oscar Wilde 812
Irish writer and poet 1854–1900

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