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Quotations about beauty
Note that not all quotations have been tagged, so the Search function may find additional quotations on this topic.
Makeup: Western equivalent of the veil. A daily reminder that something is wrong with women’s normal looks. A public apology.
Marie Shear (1940-2017) American writer and feminist activist
“Media Watch: Celebrating Women’s Words,” New Directions for Women (May/Jun 1986)
(Source)
Life is not only full of sound and fury. It also has butterflies, flowers, art.
Claude Simon (1913-2005) French novelist, critic, Nobel Laureate (Literature)
“The Art of Fiction,” #128, Interview with A. Eyle, The Paris Review (Spring 1992)
(Source)
See Shakespeare.
Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it.
Makeup is not beauty. When artfully applied, it merely enhances what’s already there — the red paint on the fire engine.
Mae West (1892-1980) American film actress
Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It: The Autobiography of Mae West (1959)
Beauties in vain their pretty Eyes may roll;
Charms strike the Sight, but Merit wins the Soul.
If God didn’t want women to be looked at, he would have made ’em ugly — that’s reasonable, isn’t it? God isn’t a cheat; He set up the game Himself — He wouldn’t rig it so that the marks can’t win, like a flat joint wheel in a town with the fix on. He wouldn’t send anybody to Hell for losing in a crooked game.
Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer
Stranger in a Strange Land, ch. 27 [Patty] (1961)
(Source)
Phryne Fisher had a taste for young and comely men, but she was not prone to trust them with anything but her body.
Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English writer
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, ch. 16 [Ford] (1979)
(Source)
The Woman tempted me — and tempts me still!
Lord god, I pray You that she ever will!
All of God’s children are not beautiful. Most of God’s children are, in fact, barely presentable.
Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950) American journalist
Metropolitan Life, “Manners” (1978)
The Owl looked up to the Stars above
And sang to a small guitar,
“Oh lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are.”
Edward Lear (1812-1888) English artist, musician, author, poet
“The Owl and the Pussy-Cat,” l. 5 (1871)
Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.
Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000) Austrian-American film actress and inventor [b, Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler]
(Attributed)
Quoted in Richard Schickel, The Stars (1962).
It must be added, lest we be reproached for leaving out details important to our readers’ understanding of subsequent events, that the lady seemed to have all the attributes of beauty, grace and charm that make a young man’s heart beat faster and cause his eyes to widen, lest they miss the least nuance of expression or gesture. It need hardly be added that Khaavren was just of the type to appreciate all of these qualities; that is to say, he was young and a man, and had, moreover, a vivid imagination which allowed his thoughts to penetrate, if not the mind of the lady opposite him, at least the folds and angles of her gown.
Steven Brust (b. 1955) American writer, systems programmer
The Phoenix Guards (1991)
Hell to ships, hell to men, hell to cities.
Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Agamemnon
Speaking of Helen of Troy. The literal translation is "Ship-destroyer, man-destroyer, city-destroyer."
“A man’s virility is in his beard,” he insisted.
To which Alexia replied, “And a woman’s is in her décolletage. Yet you don’t see me allowing mine to get out of control, now, do you?”
“If wishes were balloons,’ was his only response.
Gail Carriger (b. 1976) American archaeologist, author [pen name of Tofa Borregaard]
Timeless (2012)
Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades. A mode of conduct, a standard of courage, discipline, fortitude and integrity can do a great deal to make a woman beautiful.
Jacqueline Bisset (b. 1944) English actress.
In “Actress with 3 Countries,” Los Angeles Times (16 May 1974)
Fine natures are like fine poems; a glance at the first two lines suffices for a guess into the beauty that waits you, if you read on.
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) English novelist and politician
My Novel, or Varieties in English Life (1853)
I know the colour rose, and it is lovely,
But not when it ripens in a tumour;
And healing greens, leaves and grass, so springlike,
In Limbs that fester are not springlike.Daniel "Dannie" Abse (1923-2014) Welsh poet
“Pathology of Colours” (1968)
Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully.
Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) American clergyman, hymnist
(Attributed)
(Source)
Quoted in Life and Light for Woman, Vol. 26, #1 (Jan 1896)
A cheerful temper, joined with innocence will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and wit good-natured.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
The Tatler #192 (1 Jul 1710)
Brevity is the soul of lingerie.
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) American writer
Caption, Vogue (1916)
Quoted and attributed in Alexander Woollcott, While Rome Burns (1934). Modeled after Shakespeare.
I suppose when there’s no more room for another crow’s-foot, one attains a sort of peace?
Ronald Firbank (1886-1926) British novelist and playwright
Valmouth (1918)
YODA: When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not, hmm?
Lawrence Kasdan (b. 1949) American screenwriter, director, producer
Return of the Jedi (1983) [with George Lucas]
The body of a young woman is God’s greatest achievement. […] Of course, He could have built it to last longer but you can’t have everything.
Neil Simon (b. 1927) American playwright and screenwriter
The Gingerbread Lady (1970)
The three most beautiful words in the English language are not “I love you.” They are: “It is benign.”
Woody Allen (b. 1935) American comedian, writer, director [b. Allan Steward Konigsberg]
Deconstructing Harry (1998)
“If they were ugly, Peter, would you care half so much?” asked Nightingale. “There are some hideous things out there that can talk and reason and I wonder if you would be quite so quick to rush to their defense.”
“Maybe not,” I said. “But that just makes me shallow, it doesn’t make me wrong.”Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
Moon Over Soho (2011)
Doesn’t matter how pretty you are. What’s important is how pretty you feel. No one feels pretty when they hear “no” often enough.
Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
Skin Game (2014)
We each have a moral obligation to conserve and preserve beauty in this world; there is none to waste.
Robert A. Heinlein (1909-1988) American writer
Friday [Dr. Baldwin] (1982)
I’ve never understood all this fuss people make about the dawn. I’ve seen a few and they’re never as good as the photographs, which have the additional advantage of being things you can look at when you’re in the right frame of mind, which is usually around lunchtime.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English writer
Last Chance to See, ch. 4 (1990)
To tell a woman who is forty, “You look like sixteen,” is baloney. The blarney way of saying it is: “Tell me how old you are, I should like to know at what age women are most beautiful.”
Fulton Sheen (1895-1979) American Catholic archbishop, preacher, televangelist
Life Is Worth Living, s.5 (1957)
She was beautiful, but she was beautiful in the way a forest fire was beautiful: something to be admired from a distance, not up close.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British fabulist
Good Omens [with Terry Pratchett] (1990)
Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss!Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
Doctor Faustus, Act 5, sc. 1 (1604)
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.
John Keats (1795-1821) English poet
“Endymion” Book 1, l. 1 (1818)
Grace is beauty in action.
Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist
Pensées (1838)
Beauty loses its relish; the graces never.
Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696-1782) Scottish jurist, agriculturalist, philosopher, writer
Introduction to the Art of Thinking (1761)
Polished brass will pass upon more people than rough gold.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son (6 Mar 1747)
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I ey’d,
Such seems your beauty still.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Sonnet 104
BENDIS: We’re gonna die.
MAL: We’re not gonna die. We can’t die, Bendis. You know why? Because we are so — very — pretty. We are just too pretty for God to let us die.Joss Whedon (b. 1964) American screenwriter, author, producer [Joseph Hill Whedon]
Firefly, 1×01 “Serenity” (pilot) (20 Dec 2002)
I believe long habits of virtue have a sensible effect on the countenance.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher
“Busy-Body Papers,” American Weekly Mercury (18 Feb 1729)
For if he wou’d try effectually to acquire the real Science or TASTE of Life; he wou’d certainly discover, “That a RIGHT MIND, and GENEROUS AFFECTION, had more Beauty and Charm, than all other Symmetrys in the World besides.”
Anthony Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713) English politician and philosopher
Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, Vol. 3, “Miscellany III,” ch. 3 (1711)
(Source)
Love that has nothing but beauty to keep it in good health is short-lived, and apt to have ague fits.
Desiderius Erasmus (1465-1536) Dutch humanist philosopher and scholar
(Attributed)
Quoted without citation in numerous 19th Century works, including John Timbs, Laconics: Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors (1829).
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Richard Cumberland (1732-1811) English dramatist and civil servant.
The Observer (1788)
She walks in beauty like the night,
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes.George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
“She Walks in Beauty” (1815)
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
The Bible (14th C BC - 2nd C AD) Christian sacred scripture
1 Peter 3:3-4 [NIV]
Alt. trans.:
- "Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." [KJV]
- "You should not use outward aids to make yourselves beautiful, such as the way you fix your hair, or the jewelry you put on, or the dresses you wear. Instead, your beauty should consist of your true inner self, the ageless beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of the greatest value in God's sight." [TEV]
- "Do not adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair, and by wearing gold ornaments or fine clothing; rather, let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God’s sight." [NRSV]
First Shakespeare sonnets seem meaningless; first Bach fugues, a bore; first differential equations, sheer torture. But training changes the nature of our spiritual experiences. In due course, contact with an obscurely beautiful poem, an elaborate piece of counterpoint or of mathematical reasoning, causes us to feel direct intuitions of beauty and significance. It is the same in the moral world.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Ends and Means (1937)
A pretty girl is like a melody
That haunts you night and day,
Just like the strain of a haunting refrain,
She’ll start upon a marathon
And run around your brain.Irving Berlin (1888-1989) American songwriter [b. Isidore Beilin]
“A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody” (1919)
Good nature will always supply the absence of beauty; but beauty cannot supply the absence of good nature.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
The Spectator #306 (6 Feb 1712)
Beauty is only skin deep, but it is a valuable asset if you are poor or have not any sense.
Kin Hubbard (1868-1930) American caricaturist and humorist [Frank McKinney Hubbard]
(Attributed)
See Thomas Adams.
Beauty is only skin-deep.
Thomas Adams (1583–1653) English Calvinist clergyman and preacher
The Blacke Devill or the Apostate (1615)
Five foot two, eyes of blue,
But oh! what those five feet could do,
Has anybody seen my girl?Sam M. Lewis (1885-1959) American singer and lyricist
“Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue” (1925)
Never believe in a meritocracy in which no one is funny-looking.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden (b. 1956) American editor, writer, essayist
Making Light, “Commonplaces”
(Source)
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” — that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried — “La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!”
There is hardly any bodily blemish which a winning behaviour will not conceal, or make tolerable; and there is no external grace which ill-nature or affectation will not deform.
James Burgh (1714-1775) British politician and writer
The Dignity of Human Nature, Sec. 5 “Miscellaneous Thoughts on Prudence in Conversation” (1754)
(Source)
You are always new. The last of your kisses was ever the sweetest; the last smile the brightest; the last movement the gracefullest.
John Keats (1795-1821) English poet
Letter to Fanny Brawne (Mar 1820)
