Touched by beauty we enter the forefields of enlightenment. Flying higher and higher one may discover that there is nothing else but beauty. Isn’t it a pity that we’re not yet ready to keep it in permanent view?
—Hans Taeger
The ever-present phenomenon ceases to exist for our senses. It was a city dweller, or a prisoner, or a blind man suddenly given his sight, who first noted natural beauty.
—Remy de Gourmont (1858–1915) French Critic, Novelist
Beauty is God’s handwriting.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
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
What is the most beautiful in virile men is something feminine; what is most beautiful in feminine women is something masculine.
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher
The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.
—J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) British Scholar, Author
Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) American Poet
Beauty and wisdom are seldom found together.
—Petronius (c.27–66 CE) Roman Courtier, Novelist
The beautiful seems right by force of beauty, and the feeble wrong because of weakness.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61) English Poet
The beauty seen, is partly in him who sees it.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
Beauty is the mark God sets on virtue. Every natural action is graceful; every heroic act is also decent, and causes the place and the bystanders to shine.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Nothing is more the child of art than a garden.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.
—John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American Naturalist
The most natural beauty in the world is honesty and moral truth; for all beauty is truth. True features make the beauty of a face; and true proportions the beauty of architecture; as true measures that of harmony and music. In poetry, which is all fable, truth still is the perfection.
—Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (1621–83) English Statesman
Beauty?.. To me it is a word without sense because I do not know where its meaning comes from nor where it leads to.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
Beauty, unaccompanied by virtue, is as a flower without perfume.
—French Proverb
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, Satirist, Short Story Writer
Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Every beauty which is seen here below by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all come…
—Michelangelo (1475–1564) Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Poet, Engineer
No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?
—Annie Dillard (b.1945) Essayist, Novelist, Poet, Naturalist, Mystic
Some beautiful things are more impressive when left imperfect than when too highly finished.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Beauty is the first present nature gives to women and the first it takes away.
—George Brossin Mere (c.1610–85) French Intellectual, Author
As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
—John Keats (1795–1821) English Poet
You can take no credit for beauty at sixteen. But if you are beautiful at sixty, it will be your soul’s own doing.
—Marie Stopes (1880–1958) British Author, Social Activist
By its very nature the beautiful is isolated from everything else. From beauty no road leads to reality.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
The beautiful is a phenomenon which is never apparent of itself, but is reflected in a thousand different works of the creator.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
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