We can see nothing whatever of the soul unless it is visible in the expression of the countenance; one might call the faces at a large assembly of people a history of the human soul written in a kind of Chinese ideograms.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Her face was her chaperone.
—Rupert Hughes (1872–1956) American Historian, Novelist, Film Director, Composer
If you have a job without aggravations, you don’t have a job.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
The serial number of a human specimen is the face, that accidental and unrepeatable combination of features. It reflects neither character nor soul, nor what we call the self. The face is only the serial number of a specimen.
—Milan Kundera (1929–2023) Czech Novelist
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
I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.
—Lauren Bacall (1924–2014) American Film Actress
A strange and somewhat impassive physiognomy is often, perhaps, an advantage to an orator, or leader of any sort, because it helps to fix the eye and fascinate the mind.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
Every man over forty is responsible for his face.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
What is a face, really? Its own photo? Its make-up? Or is it a face as painted by such or such painter? That which is in front? Inside? Behind? And the rest? Doesn’t everyone look at himself in his own particular way? Deformations simply do not exist.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The faces which have charmed us the most escape us the soonest.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
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
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
He had a face like a blessing.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
It has to be displayed, this face, on a more or less horizontal plane. Imagine a man wearing a mask, and imagine that the elastic which holds the mask on has just broken, so that the man (rather than let the mask slip off) has to tilt his head back and balance the mask on his real face. This is the kind of tyranny which Lawson’s face exerts over the rest of his body as he cruises along the corridors. He doesn’t look down his nose at you, he looks along his nose.
—James Fenton (b.1949) English Poet, Journalist
If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Was this the face that launched a thousand ships, and burnt the topless towers of Ileum?
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–93) English Playwright, Poet, Translator
It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shed.
—Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972) American Playwright, Poet, Novelist
People remain what they are, even when their faces fall to pieces.
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) German Poet, Playwright, Theater Personality
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
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
A man’s face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man’s thoughts and aspirations.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
The eyes those silent tongues of love.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
My face looks like a wedding-cake left out in the rain.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
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
A good face they say, is a letter of recommendation. O Nature, Nature, why art thou so dishonest, as ever to send men with these false recommendations into the World!
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
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