quotations about beauty
In the contemplation of beauty we are raised above ourselves, the passions are silenced and we are happy in the recognition of a good that we do not seek to possess.
GEORGE SANTAYANA
The Sense of Beauty
Choosing beauty over content (or choosing beauty as content) is always an act of sedition. If we accept the cant of official culture, we must believe that the beauty we steal from any man-made thing is stolen from its more virtuous and metaphysical backstory, wherein "real" beauty is said to reside.
DAVE HICKEY
The Invisible Dragon
Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
The Conduct of Life
It is foolish to wish for beauty. Sensible people never either desire it for themselves or care about it in others. If the mind be but well cultivated, and the heart well disposed, no one ever cares for the exterior.
ANNE BRONTE
Agnes Grey
Trust a girl of sixteen for knowing well if she is pretty; concerning her plainness she may be ignorant.
ELIZABETH GASKELL
Mary Barton
Beauty's voice speaks gently: it creeps only into the most awakened souls.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
If I conceive of a woman so transcendingly beautiful that upon her beauty no improvement can be made, I do not conceive of the principle itself of beauty, but only of its incarnation. In the woman, and through her, I perceive that by virtue of which she becomes beautiful. When I see a beautiful woman, I see in her a more beautiful woman still; for in every person we find some fault, and by eliminating the fault, we attain nearer to perfection. But in and through that more beautiful woman still, I perceive that which gives the character of beauty. But this principle can never be perceived directly in itself; it can be perceived only when manifesting itself in some person or thing, and even then only as transcending.
WILLIAM BATCHELDER GREENE
The Doctrine of Life
Beauty is when your outside intrigues people and your inside makes them stay.
ANONYMOUS
Most people tend to think the best of those who are blessed with beauty; we have difficulty imagining that physical perfection can conceal twisted emotions or a damaged mind.
DEAN KOONTZ
Odd Thomas
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Your voice would have silenced merle and thrush,
And the rose outbloomed would have blushed to blush,
And Summer, seeing you, paused, and known
That the glow of your beauty outshone its own.
ALFRED AUSTIN
"My Winter Rose", Lyrical Poems
As everyone knows, beauty is at its most poignant when the cold hand of Death holds poised to wither it imminently.
JACQUELINE CAREY
Kushiel's Dart
Beauty, when it first discloses the mellowing touches of age, affects us painfully. It is like the tints of sunset, or the beauty of autumn--a melancholy beauty--beauty in decline--upon which we cannot gaze without a feeling of sadness--of sadness that it is passing away.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
You cannot pluck roses without fear of thorns
Nor enjoy a fair wife without danger of horns.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1734
[Beauty is] a delicate bait with a deadly hook; a sweet panther with a devouring paunch, a sour poison in a silver pot.
JOHN LYLY
Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit
Beauty in a woman is a moving thing,
Yet sometimes just the patient lack of it
Will pierce the heart to deeper poignancies,
And, melting, draw a note of tenderness
That not the fairest woman could evoke!
DONALD EVANS
"Shrines of Unloveliness"
Beauty is a symbol of goodness; the admiration we feel for it is a symbol of the reverence inspired by the moral law.
ERMANNO BENCIVENGA
Exercises in Constructive Imagination
I am corrupted to the bone with the beauty of this forsaken world.
J. M. COETZEE
In the Heart of the Country
The fairest cheek hath oftentimes a soul
Leprous as sin itself.
THOMAS DEKKER
Old Fortunatus
Beauty when most unclothed is clothed best.
PHINEAS FLETCHER
Sicelides