Call for the grandest of all earthly spectacles, what is that? It is the sun going to his rest.
—Thomas de Quincey (1785–1859) English Essayist, Critic
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
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
Talent, like beauty, to be pardoned, must be obscure and unostentatious.
—Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789–1849) Irish Novelist, Writer
Why don’t I see goodness and beauty everywhere? Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside.
—Anthony de Mello (1931–87) Indian-born American Theologian
The beauty seen, is partly in him who sees it.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
Had the price of looking been blindness, I would have looked.
—Ralph Ellison (1914–1994) American Novelist
Our hearts are drunk with a beauty our eyes could never see.
—George William Russell (1867–1935) Irish Author, Poet, Editor, Critic, Painter
There is beauty everywhere. Just put your heart into your eyes.
—Hans Taeger
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
The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility.
—Rachel Carson (1907–64) American Naturalist, Science Writer
Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
—Franz Kafka (1883–1924) Austrian Novelist, Short Story Writer
Beauty is an outward gift which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
Beauty is the promise of happiness.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle) (1783–1842) 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
Beauty is desired in order that it may be befouled; not for its own sake, but for the joy brought by the certainty of profaning it.
—Georges Bataille (1897–1962) French Essayist, Intellectual
People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.
—Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian Head of State
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.
—Rachel Carson (1907–64) American Naturalist, Science Writer
There is in true beauty, as in courage, somewhat which narrow souls cannot dare to admire.
—William Congreve (1670–1729) English Playwright, Poet
What humbugs we are, who pretend to live for Beauty, and never see the Dawn.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.
—Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789–1849) Irish Novelist, Writer
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
If virtue accompanies beauty it is the heart’s paradise; if vice be associate with it, it is the soul’s purgatory. — It is the wise man’s bonfire, and the fool’s furnace.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious 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
No one ever called me pretty when I was a little girl.
—Marilyn Monroe (1926–62) American Actor, Model, Singer
Beauty: The adjustment of all parts proportionately so that one cannot add or subtract or change without impairing the harmony of the whole.
—Leon Battista Alberti (1404–72) Italian Polymath, Author, Artist, Architect, Poet
There are as many kinds of beauty as there are habitual ways of seeking happiness.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
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 Poet, Novelist, Critic
Beauty seen is never lost, God’s colors all are fast.
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92) American Quaker Poet, Abolitionist
A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, American, Poet, Essayist, Journalist
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) British Statesman
The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.
—Hada Bejar
Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.
—Edmund Spenser (1552–99) English Poet
Beauty is the purgation of superfluities.
—Michelangelo (1475–1564) Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Poet, Engineer
Far away, there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations; I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
—Louisa May Alcott (1832–88) American Novelist
I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.
—e. e. cummings (1894–1962) American Poet, Writer, Painter
Where does beauty begin and where does it end? It ends where the artist begins.
—John Cage (1912–92) American Composer, Philosopher, Poet, Artist
Sunsets are so beautiful that they almost seem as if we were looking through the gates of Heaven.
—John Lubbock (1834–1913) English Politician, Biologist
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor even touched, but just felt in the heart.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
Ugliness creates bitterness. Ugliness is an eroding force on the people of our land. We are all here to try to change that.
—Lady Bird Johnson (1912–2007) First Lady of the United States, Conservationist
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
There is no more potent antidote to low sensuality than admiration of the beautiful. — All the higher arts of design are essentially chaste, without respect to the object. — They purify the thoughts, as tragedy purifies the passions. — Their accidental effects are not worth consideration; for there are souls to whom even a vestal is not holy.
—August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767–1845) German Poet, Literary Critic, Scholar
The beautiful seems right by force of beauty, and the feeble wrong because of weakness.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61) English Poet
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
People are like stained glass windows—the true beauty can be seen only when there is light from within. The darker the night, the brighter the windows.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (1926-2004) American Psychiatrist
One summer night, out on a flat headland, all but surrounded by the waters of the bay, the horizons were remote and distant rims on the edge of space. Millions of stars blazed in darkness, and on the far shore a few lights burned in cottages. Otherwise there was no reminder of human life. My companion and I were alone with the stars: the misty river of the Milky Way flowing across the sky, the patterns of the constellations standing out bright and clear, a blazing planet low on the horizon. It occurred to me that if this were a sight that could be seen only once in a century, this little headland would be thronged with spectators. But it can be seen many scores of nights in any year, and so the lights burned in the cottages and the inhabitants probably gave not a thought to the beauty overhead; and because they could see it almost any night, perhaps they never will.
—Rachel Carson (1907–64) American Naturalist, Science Writer
I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices. But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly. I think it is just as important to sing about beautiful mornings as it is to talk about slums. I just couldn’t write anything without hope in it.
—Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960) American Songwriter, Composer, Theater Producer, Writer
Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not fine yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful: he cuts away here, he smoothes there, he makes this line lighter, this other purer, until a lovely face has grown his work. So do you also: cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is overcast, labor to make all one glow or beauty and never cease chiseling your statue, until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendor of virtue, until you see the perfect goodness surely established in the stainless shrine.
—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
Beauty is power; a smile is its sword.
—Charles Reade (1814–84) English Novelist, Dramatist
Then he felt quite ashamed, and hid his head under his wing; for he did not know what to do, he was so happy, and yet not at all proud. He had been persecuted and despised for his ugliness, and now he heard them say he was the most beautiful of all the birds. Even the elder-tree bent down its bows into the water before him, and the sun shone warm and bright. Then he rustled his feathers, curved his slender neck, and cried joyfully, from the depths of his heart, “I never dreamed of such happiness as this, while I was an ugly duckling.”
—Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75) Danish Author, Poet, Short Story Writer
I don’t think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that still remains.
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
By cultivating the beautiful we scatter the seeds of heavenly flowers, as by doing good we cultivate those that belong to humanity.
—John Howard
Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
Take back the beauty and wit you bestow upon me; leave me my own mediocrity of agreeableness and genius, but leave me also my sincerity, my constancy, and my plain dealing; ’tis all I have to recommend me to the esteem either of others or myself.
—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) English Aristocrat, Poet, Novelist, Writer
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
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
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
At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman, and these hills, the softness of the sky, the outline of these trees at this very minute lose the illusory meaning with which we had clothed them, henceforth more remote than a lost paradise… that denseness and that strangeness of the world is absurd.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
O, thou art fairer than the evening air clad in the beauty of a thousand stars.
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–93) English Playwright, Poet, Translator
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
In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful; and the beautiful things that God makes are his gift to all alike.
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96) American Abolitionist, Author
What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful.
—Sappho (c.630–c.580 BCE) Greek Poet
Beauty and wisdom are seldom found together.
—Petronius (c.27–66 CE) Roman Courtier, Novelist
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
I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher, Theologian
Beauty ought to look a little surprised: it is the emotion that best suits her face. The beauty who does not look surprised, who accepts her position as her due—she reminds us too much of a prima donna.
—E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist
It is the beautiful bird that gets caged.
—Chinese Proverb
The moment one gives a close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world unto itself.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
All the things that truly matter–beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace–arise from beyond the mind.
—Eckhart Tolle (b.1948) German Spiritual Writer, Public Speaker, Spiritual Teacher
In every man’s heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
One evening I sat Beauty on my knees –And I found her bitter –And I reviled her.
—Arthur Rimbaud (1854–91) French Poet, Adventurer
Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
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
Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Beauty is rather a light that plays over the symmetry of things than that symmetry itself.
—Plotinus (c.205–270 CE) Greek Philosopher, Founder of Neoplatonism
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
Taught from infancy that beauty is woman’s scepter, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.
—Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–97) English Writer, Feminist
The beauty of the world, which is so soon to perish, has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
Beauty is the index of a larger fact than wisdom.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist