It is the common wonder of all men, how among so many million faces, there should be none alike.
—Thomas Browne (1605–82) English Author, Physician
The face is the index of the mind.
—Common Proverb
The human face is the organic seat of beauty. It is the register of value in development, a record of Experience, whose legitimate office is to perfect the life, a legible language to those who will study it, of the majestic mistress, the soul.
—Eliza Farnham (1815–64) American Reformer, Writer
Clowns wear a face that’s painted intentionally on them so they appear to be happy or sad. What kind of mask are you wearing today?
—Unknown
If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
The eyes those silent tongues of love.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
There are faces so fluid with expression, so flushed and rippled by the play of thought, that we can hardly find what the mere features really are.—When the delicious beauty of lineaments loses its power, it is because a more delicious beauty has appeared—that an interior and durable form has been disclosed.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
He had a face like a blessing.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
A beautiful face is a silent commendation.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll make an exception.
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.
—Lauren Bacall (1924–2014) American Film Actress
A face is too slight a foundation for happiness.
—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) English Aristocrat, Poet, Novelist, Writer
God had given you one face, and you make yourself another.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
After a certain number of years our faces become our biographies. We get to be responsible for our faces.
—Cynthia Ozick (b.1928) American Novelist, Short-story Writer, Essayist
Tom’s great yellow bronze mask all draped upon an iron framework. An inhibited, nerve-drawn; dropped face—as if hung on a scaffold of heavy private brooding; and thought.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
Every man over forty is responsible for his face.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
He had a face like a benediction.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
The cheek is apter than the tongue to tell an errand.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Her face was her chaperone.
—Rupert Hughes (1872–1956) American Novelist, Film Director, Military Officer
The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. The very simplicity and nakedness of man’s life in the primitive ages imply this advantage, at least, that they left him still but a sojourner in nature. To be awake is to be alive. Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. Every man is a builder of a temple, called his body, to the god he worships, after a style purely his own, nor can he get off by hammering marble instead. We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man’s features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them. Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Our masks, always in peril of smearing or cracking, in need of continuous check in the mirror or silverware, keep us in thrall to ourselves, concerned with our surfaces.
—Carolyn Kizer (1925–2014) American Poet, Essayist, Translator
I am the family face; flesh perishes, I live on, projecting trait and trace through time to times anon, and leaping from place to place over oblivion.
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English Novelist, Poet
Alas after a certain age, every man is responsible for his own face.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Novelist
There is in every human countenance, either a history or a prophecy, which must sadden, or at least soften, every reflecting observer.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
As the language of the face is universal, so ’tis very comprehensive; ’tis the shorthand of the mind, and crowds a great deal in a little room.
—Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) Anglican Church Historian, Clergyman
Truth makes the face of that person shine who speaks and owns it.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
The features of our face are hardly more than gestures which force of habit made permanent. Nature, like the destruction of Pompeii, like the metamorphosis of a nymph into a tree, has arrested us in an accustomed movement.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
In thy face I see the map of honor, truth, and loyalty.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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