If you have never seen beauty in a moment of suffering, you have never seen beauty at all. If you have never seen joy in a beautiful face, you have never seen joy at all.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
A woman who could always love would never grow old; and the love of mother and wife would often give or preserve many charms if it were not too often combined with parental and conjugal anger. There remains in the faces of women who are naturally serene and peaceful, and of those rendered so by religion, an after-spring, and later an after-summer, the reflex of their most beautiful bloom.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself, and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.
—James Allen (1864–1912) British Philosophical Writer
Beauty will be convulsive or will not be at all.
—Andre Breton (1896–1966) French Poet, Essayist, Critic
Never regard study as a duty but as an enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later works belong.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Love beauty; it is the shadow of God on the universe.
—Gabriela Mistral (1889–1957) Chilean Poet, Educator, Diplomat
Beauty addresses itself chiefly to sight, but there is a beauty for the hearing too, as in certain combinations so words and in all kinds of music; for melodies and cadences are beautiful; and minds that lift themselves above the realm of sense to a higher order are aware of beauty in the conduct of life, in actions, in character, in the pursuits of the intellect; and there is the beauty of the virtues.
—Plotinus (c.205–270 CE) Greek Philosopher, Founder of Neoplatonism
Nothing’s beautiful from every point of view.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
To me, fair friend, you never can be old. For as you were when first your eye I eyed. Such seems your beauty still.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Remember if you marry for beauty, thou bindest thyself all thy life for that which perchance, will neither last nor please thee one year: and when thou hast it, it will be to thee of no price at all.
—Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) English Courtier, Navigator, Poet
To live differently, to love differently, to think differently, or to try to. Is the danger of beauty so great that it is better to live without it (the standard model)? Or to fall into her arms fire to fire? There is no discovery without risk and what you risk reveals what you value.
—Jeanette Winterson (b.1959) English Novelist, Journalist
That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful.
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) American Poet
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
I have seen manners that make a similar impression with personal beauty, that give the like exhilaration and refine us like that; and in memorable experiences they are certainly better than beauty, and make that superfluous and ugly. But they must be marked by fine perception, and must always show control; you shall not be facile, apologetic, or leaky, but king over your word; and every gesture and action shall indicate power at rest. They must be inspired by the good heart. There is no beautifier of complexion, or form or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy, and not pain, around us.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.
—Chinese Proverb
It is easy to be beautiful; it is difficult to appear so.
—Frank O’Hara (1926–66) American Poet, Art Critic
The moral sense reappears today with the same morning newness that has been from of old the fountain of beauty and strength. You say there is no religion now. ‘Tis like saying in rainy weather, There is no sun, when at that moment we are witnessing one of its superlative effects.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature’s gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.
—Jimmy Carter (b.1924) American Head of State, Military Leader
Beauty isn’t worth thinking about; what’s important is your mind. You don’t want a fifty-dollar haircut on a fifty-cent head.
—Garrison Keillor (b.1942) American Author, Humorist, Radio Personality
I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings. My wisdom flows from the Highest Source. I salute that Source in you. Let us work together for unity and love.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Wisdom is the abstract of the past, but beauty is the promise of the future.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
The most wonderful of all things in life, I believe, is the discovery of another human being with whom one’s relationship has a glowing depth, beauty, and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing, it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of Divine accident.
—Hugh Walpole (1884–1941) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Dramatist
Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
We know only that we are living in these bodies and have a vague idea, because we have heard it, and because our faith tells us so, that we possess souls. As to what good qualities there may be in our souls, or who dwells within them, or how precious they are, those are things which seldom consider and so we trouble little about carefully preserving the soul’s beauty.
—Teresa of Avila (1515–82) Spanish Carmelite Nun, Mystic
Beauty is all very well at first sight; but whoever looks at it when it has been in the house three days?
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The love of beauty in its multiple forms is the noblest gift of the human cerebrum.
—Alexis Carrel (1873–1944) American Surgeon, Biologist
Beauty in the flesh will continue to rule the world.
—Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (1869–1932) American Theatre Manager
Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) American Poet
The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, even one’s own—even more, one’s own, for that has been put in our care and we are responsible for its well-being
—Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980) American Short-Story Writer, Novelist
There are women who have an indefinable charm in their faces which makes them beautiful to their intimates, but a cold stranger who tried to reason the matter out and find this beauty would fail.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Beauty always promises, but never gives anything.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
What humbugs we are, who pretend to live for Beauty, and never see the Dawn.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
Beauty is not caused. It is.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The world is as you perceive it to be. For me, clarity is a word for beauty. It’s what I am. And when I’m clear, I see only beauty. Nothing else is possible.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
The beauty of stature is the only beauty of men.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
Beauty is composed of an eternal, invariable element whose quantity is extremely difficult to determine, and a relative element which might be, either by turns or all at once, period, fashion, moral, passion.
—Jean-luc Godard (b.1930) French-born Swiss Film Director, Film Critic
Being is desirable because it is identical with Beauty, and Beauty is loved because it is Being. We ourselves possess Beauty when we are true to our own being; ugliness is in going over to another order; knowing ourselves, we are beautiful; in self-ignorance, we are ugly.
—Plotinus (c.205–270 CE) Greek Philosopher, Founder of Neoplatonism
It is better to be first with an ugly woman than the hundredth with a beauty.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
It is better to be beautiful than to be good, but it is better to be good than to be ugly.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
If you get simple beauty and naught else, you get about the best God invents.
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet
Beauty in a modest woman is like fire at a distance, or a sharp sword beyond reach.—The one does not burn, or the other wound those that come not too near them.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Art is an invention of aesthetics, which in turn is an invention of philosophers…. What we call art is a game.
—Octavio Paz (1914–98) Mexican Poet, Diplomat
Few girls are as well shaped as a good horse.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
Do you love me because I’m beautiful, or am I beautiful because you love me?
—Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960) American Songwriter, Composer, Theater Producer, Writer
Where beauty is worshipped for beauty’s sake as a goddess, independent of and superior to morality and philosophy, the most horrible putrefaction is apt to set in. The lives of the aesthetes are the far from edifying commentary on the religion of beauty.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
All forms of beauty, like all possible phenomena, contain an element of the eternal and an element of the transitory—of the absolute and of the particular. Absolute and eternal beauty does not exist, or rather it is only an abstraction creamed from the general surface of different beauties. The particular element in each manifestation comes from the emotions: and just as we have our own particular emotions, so we have our own beauty.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator