"It was a fatal day when the..." - Quote by Oscar Wilde
It was a fatal day when the public discovered that the pen is mightier than the paving-stone, and can be made as offensive as the brickbat. They at once sought for the journalist, found him, developed him, and made him their industrious and well-paid servant. It is greatly to be regretted, for both their sakes.
More by Oscar Wilde
“To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”
“The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are.”
“No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.”
More on Journalism
“One of the objects of a newspaper is to understand popular feeling and to give expression to it; another is to arouse among the people certain desirable sentiments; and the third is fearlessly to expose popular defects.”
“Here in the news media, our focus is on speed. When we get hold of some new and possibly inaccurate information, our highest priority is to get it to you, the public, before our competitors do. If the news media owned airlines, there would be a lot less concern about how many planes crashed, and a lot more concern about whose plane hit the ground first.”
“All in all, I just don't trust journalists - and I don't think it's a good practice for me to trust journalists.”
More on Power
“Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”
“In this state one enriches everything out of one's own fullness: whatever one sees, whatever wills is seen swelled, taut, strong, overloaded with strength. A man in this state transforms things until they mirror his power—until they are reflections of his perfection. This having to transform into perfection is—art.”
“The powers of the mind are like the rays of the sun when they are concentrated they illumine.”