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- 18-Jan-21 - "The Christian Way of Life in Human Relations," speech, General Assembly fo the National Council of Churches, St Louis (4 Dec 1957) | WIST on Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963).
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Quotations about ugliness
Note that not all quotations have been tagged, so the Search function may find additional quotations on this topic.
To emphasize only the beautiful seems to me to be like a mathematical system that only concerns itself with positive numbers.
The universe could have been created ugly, and would have functioned. And yet there is beauty everywhere in creation. Beauty gives us an ache, to be worthy of that creation.
Mary Oliver (1935-2019) American poet
Comments at Wellesley College (20 Oct 2010)
(Source)
The last phrase is frequently paraphrased, "We need beauty because it makes us ache to be worthy of it."
Let a defect, which is possibly but small, appear undisguised. A fault concealed is presumed to be great.
[Simpliciter pateat vitium fortasse pusillum:
Quod tegitur, magnum creditur esse malum]Martial (AD c.39-c.103) Spanish Roman poet, satirist, epigrammatist [Marcus Valerius Martialis]
Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 3, Epigram 42 [tr. Bohn (1871)]
(Source)
Alt. trans.:
- "Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst."
- "Simple decays men easily pass by, // But, hid, suspect some great deformity" [tr. Anon. (1695)]
- "Double we see those faults which art would mend, // Plain downright ugliness would less offend." [tr. Sedley]
- "Let a blemish, which perhaps is small, simply show. The flow which is hidden is deemed greater than it is." [tr. Ker (1919)]
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)
Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil.
The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, but indifference,
indifference between life and death.
Elie Wiesel (b. 1928) Romanian-American novelist, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate.
“One Must Not Forget,” interview by Alvin P. Sanoff, US News & World Report (27 Oct 1986)
See also Nietzsche.
