Beauty has been worshipped at the altar or burnt at stake. But it has never failed to move. Nobody can be indifferent to beauty.
"How complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness" says Lev Tolstoy. What is this thing called beauty, which seems to be different to each eye? Why is it so crucial to life and happiness? Why do we yearn to surround ourselves with all things beautiful? What do the thinkers, poets, artists feel about this thing called beauty? Read on to find out.
Beauty is a terrible and awful thing. It is terrible because it has not been fathomed.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
"It is a gift of God,"
Aristotle
"It is higher indeed than genius because it stands no explanation."
Oscar Wilde
Beauty itself, doth of itself persuade
The eyes of man, without an orator.
Shakespeare
"Even Cindy Crawford does not look like Cindy Crawford when she wakes up,"
Cindy Crawford
As a white candle in a holy place,
So is the beauty in an aged face.
John Donne
I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made."
Marilyn Monroe
"It stirs up envy, fame does. People…feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you and it won't hurt your feelings like it's happening to your clothing."
Marilyn Monroe
Beauty is not in the face;beauty is a light in the heart
Kahlil Gibran
A soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.
Johann von Goeth
A thing of beauty is a joy forever;
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness.
~ ~John Keats. 1795-1821 Endymion. Book i
Did my heart love till now?
Forswear it sight,
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
~ ~Shakespeare; Romeo and Juliet.
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.
~Hellen Keller ~
I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty,
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
Was thy dream then a shadowy lie?
Toil on, poor heart, unceasingly;
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A truth and noonday light to thee.
~Ellen Sturgis Hooper. 1816-1841.
No radiant pearl which crested Fortune wears,
No gem that twinkling hangs from Beauty's ears, Not the bright stars which Night's blue arch adorn,
Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn,
Shine with such lustre as the tear that flows
Down Virtue's manly cheek for others' woes.
~Erasmus Darwin. 1731-1802. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 459.
Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful,
for beauty is God's handwriting -- a wayside sacrament.
Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every flower,
and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere.
~Vincent Van Gogh ~
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it.
For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it.
For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.
~Ivan Panin ~
It's beauty that captures your attention; personality which captures your heart.
~Anonymous ~
Keep your faith in all beautiful things; in the sun when it is hidden, in the Spring when it is gone.
~Roy R. Gilson ~
A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful, which God has implanted in the human soul.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ~
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
~Albert Einstein ~
People are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within.
~Elizabeth Kubler-Ross ~
Personal beauty is a better introduction than any letter.
Diogenes Laertius. Circa 200 A.D.
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