Meaning

Wilde is making a sardonic observation about how audiences and crowds behave. People are quite willing to overlook faults, scandals, and ordinary failings, he says, but they bristle at exceptional talent because it makes demands on them. Genius disrupts comfortable standards and forces comparison, so it tends to provoke resentment rather than gratitude. The line exposes a certain democratic suspicion of excellence dressed up as tolerance.

Context

This line appears in "Intentions," a collection of critical essays Wilde published in 1891. The book gathered his thoughts on art, criticism, and the relationship between the artist and society, written in a dialogue form that let Wilde develop arguments playfully while still making pointed cases. The essays championed the idea that art should not be judged by moral or utilitarian standards, and several passages in the book skewered what Wilde saw as the mediocrity of popular taste. This particular line fits neatly into that broader argument.

About the author

Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright and writer who became famous in London literary and social circles in the 1880s and 1890s. Beyond his plays and his novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray," he was a serious critic who believed strongly in the autonomy of art and the importance of individual creative vision. His critical writing was often provocative by design, intended to unsettle received opinion. He remains one of the most quoted writers in the English language, admired for the way he combined elegance with intellectual challenge.