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Beauty

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“Some day you will know that there is a beauty of the soul that is more important than worldly beauty. Remember this when you see worldly beauty.”
John P. Marquand (1893–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty, and the love of beauty, give to the soul the happiness to which it aspires by its very nature. If the soul wishes to be happy in an unconditional and permanent fashion, it must bear the beautiful within itself; now the soul can only do this through realizing virtue, which we could also term goodness or piety.”
Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Christ does not dress up a moral picture, and ask you to observe its beauty. He only tells you how to live; and the most beautiful characters the world has ever seen, have been those who received and lived these precepts without once conceiving their beauty.”
Horace Bushnell (1802–1876) said by 1876 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty without purpose is beauty without virtue. But all beautiful things, inherently, have this function — to excite the viewers toward sublime thought. Glory to the world, that good teacher.”
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All writers, not ours alone but foreigners also, who have sought to represent Absolute Beauty, were unequal to the task, for it is an infinitely difficult one. The beautiful is the ideal ; but ideals, with us as in civilized Europe, have long been wavering. There is in the world only one figure of absolute beauty: Christ. That infinitely lovely figure is, as a matter of course, an infinite marvel.”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) first seen 1868 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his Niece Sofia Alexandrovna, Geneva, January 1, 1868. Ethel Golburn Mayne, Letters of Fyodor Michailovitch Dostoyevsky to His Family and Friends (1879), Dostoevsky's Letters XXXIX, p. 136
“Pollution, defilement, squalor are words that never would have been created had man lived conformably to Nature. Birds, insects, bears die as cleanly and are disposed of as beautifully as flies. The woods are full of dead and dying trees, yet needed for their beauty to complete the beauty of the living.... How beautiful is all Death!”
John Muir (1838–1914) first seen 1875 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: August or September 1875, page 222
“Everything that’s miserable in the world,” Nick the dwarf once said to me, “is because of beauty.” “Not truth or goodness?” I’d asked. “Oh, they help. But beauty is the culprit, the real principle of evil.” “Not wealth?” “Money is beautiful.”
Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am partial to the pantheism of Shelley. There is beauty everywhere. Even in a total war of annihiliation it will not be possible to wipe out all of it. Beauty is too beautiful to perish altogether. In this period of twelve months in solitary confinement I have rarely recalled an unpleasant or ugly glimpse of the past.”
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1928–1979) said by 1979 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We affirm that the world's magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, like serpents of explosive breath – a roaring car that seems to run on grapeshot is more beautiful than The Victory of Samoth-race (1910).”
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: 'Le Figaro', 20 February 1909, as quoted in Futurist Manifestos, ed. Umbro Appolonio, Thames and Hudson, London, 1973
“Let children love Allah, let them love the Qur’an. Let us protect them from the dissension of Darwinism, from the dissension of materialism, communism, from the dissension of godless and Bookless mentalities. With all our might, let us teach them the beauty of holy values and the beauty of the Qur’an. Let the hearts of those beautiful beings be filled with the love of Allah.”
Adnan Oktar (born 1956) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 20 April 2013.
“When you are very young, you tend to accept standards for such momentous judgments as to whether a girl is beautiful; when you reach the age of experience you come to know beauty in the sense that “knowing” is to possess. Beauty does more than reflect light, it is the action of energy on form, glowing as a total function. This is singularly true of a grouse dog in his consecration to his bird.”
George Bird Evans (1906–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Just like we have to redefine strength, we have to redefine beauty. It’s not even about beautiful, it’s about being who you are. It’s about being honest. It’s about stepping into, 'This is how I am in private, this is how I look, this is how I act, this is my mess, this is my strength, this is my beauty, this is my intelligence,' and then putting it out there that this is who I am.”
Viola Davis (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My face, my beautiful body figure. God Almighty has blessed me with beauty and I know that goes a long way but most importantly is my talent. This is paramount because with beauty and no talent, your brand as an actor will not sell. So my talent speaks for me and that sells me.”
Luchy Donalds (born 1991) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty, well, it's one of the greatest, greatest gifts. I feel sorry sometimes because people are so worried and so involved in something that they don't have even five minutes to look at something beautiful. I find beauty almost everywhere.”
Laura Huxley (1911–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most enviable situation is not to be the subject of beauty and to know oneself to be beautiful, but to be the object of beauty and such that only the other enjoys what emanates from us.”
Jean Guitton (1901–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. What is ugly to you may be handsome to me. I don’t think there is anything like dating an ugly man. He might be ugly to you but he is handsome to me. It is basically beauty from the inside; that is the most important thing. If your inside is as beautiful and amazing, what is on the outside is of no consequence, so it is your inside that matters”
Unoaku Anyadike (born 1994) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I shall not find a painting more beautiful because the artist has painted a hawthorn in the foreground, though I know of nothing more beautiful than the hawthorn, for I wish to remain sincere and because I know that the beauty of a painting does not depend on the things represented in it. I shall not collect images of hawthorn. I do not venerate hawthorn, I go to see and smell it.”
Marcel Proust (1871–1922) first seen 1904 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Preface (1910) to The Bible of Amiens by John Ruskin, translated by Proust (1904); from Marcel Proust: On Reading Ruskin, trans. Jean Autret and Philip J. Wolfe (Yale University Press, 1987, , p. 57
“[It] is all about the African woman, her beauty and how she makes herself beautiful. An African woman is therefore not to be messed up with or looked down upon because she’s feminine. Even though she’s beautiful, she’s strong and has a sense of pride.”
Muma Gee (born 1978) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In "The role Emeka Ike played in my marriage" by Opeoluwani Ogunjimi on vanguardngr.com, June 15, 2013: On her song "African Woman Skillashy
“Anyway, I would not be happy to see a beautiful, well-proportioned woman, no matter from which point of view, however extravagant, not only lose her beauty in order to, I would say, increase in size according to the law of vision, but no longer appear beautiful, and, in fact, become monstrous.”
El Greco (1541–1614) first seen 1000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from the marginalia, which El Greco inscribed in his copy of Daniele Barbaro's translation of Vitruvius' De architectura; as quoted by Liane Lefaivre and Alexander Tzonis,The Emergence of Modern Architecture: A Do…
“Women, you don't want to try to be pretty, it's a lie. You want to be beautiful, to tell the truth. Pretty is a manipulation. You want to be beautiful. To tell the truth. Truth is beauty.”
Alonzo King (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The hardest thing these days is to make something that’s beautiful; it’s easy to make ugly art. I think it takes a lot more talent to make something beautiful. Beauty to me is when you show something to someone that they’ve never seen before. That’s what a great work of art does; it shows you something that you didn’t know existed.”
Gronk (artist) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On making beautiful artwork in “Gronk by Marisela Norte” in BOMB Magazine (2007 Jan 1)
“I’m a beautiful woman and I know what it takes to keep being beautiful. So, I’m extending it to other women who don’t know how to keep their body in good shape after delivery. I am also into skincare, hair, body sculpting; I run a beauty store basically.”
Uche Elendu (born 1986) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You decide what beautiful means to you. We don’t all need to look the same. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you decide what’s beautiful in the world. Not the other way around.”
Keke Palmer (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the great modern philosophers of beauty, Immanuel Kant, spoke of the joy we take in the Beautiful as 'disinterested delight'. The animation of the Beautiful is so immediate and fulfilling that we simply enjoy it for itself; it never occurs to us to ask what purpose it serves.”
John O'Donohue (1956–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace (2010).
“Roberto Vecchioni is a betrayed lover, which is why he said that phrase: his is an appeal for love, not an indictment of Sicily. There is beauty in Sicily; Sicily is beautiful. Of course, Vecchioni could have avoided generalising, but I am convinced that he already regrets having uttered those words. Long live the good and beautiful Sicily that exists.”
Pippo Baudo (1936–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty of form affects the mind, but then it must be understood that it is not the mere shell that we admire; we are attracted by the idea that this shell is only a beautiful case adjusted to the shape and value of a still more beautiful pearl within. The perfection of outward loveliness is the soul shining through its crystalline covering.”
Jane Porter (1776–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When you think that you are beautiful, you are liable to think that you are more beautiful than others, and such a thought is not a beautiful thought. To recognize or criticise ugliness and inferiority in others is to create the inferior and the ugly in yourself, and what you create in yourself will sooner or later be expressed through your mind and personality.”
Christian D. Larson (1874–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I just felt baseball was a beautiful game, especially at night. The sun -- I mean, you had the lights out there and all you do is go out there, and you're out there by yourself in center field, and it's just a beautiful game. And, I just felt that it was such a beautiful game that I just wanted to play it forever, you know.”
Willie Mays (1931–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I look at things, I always see the space they occupy. I always want the space to reappear, to make a comeback, because it's lost space when there's something in it. If I see a chair in a beautiful space, no matter how beautiful the chair is, it can never be as beautiful to me as the plain space.”
Andy Warhol (1928–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think it's very important to feel beautiful. I think it's very political to feel beautiful, especially if you're Queer, because if you're Queer you have to take on the world every single day of your life, so you have to feel beautiful to survive.”
Margaret Cho (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I simultaneously believe that languages are wonderful and awful. You have to hold both of those. Ugly things can be beautiful. And beautiful can get ugly very fast. You know, take Lisp. You know, it's the most beautiful language in the world. At least up until Haskell came along. (laughter) But, you know, every program in Lisp is just ugly. I don't figure how that works.”
Larry Wall (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea In a beautiful pea green boat, They took some honey, and plenty of money, Wrapped up in a five pound note. The Owl looked up to the stars above, And sang to a small guitar, "O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love, What a beautiful Pussy you are, You are, You are! What a beautiful Pussy you are!”
Edward Lear (1812–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A flower may be beautiful all on its own, but a person is never truly beautiful unless someone's eyes show him that he is beautiful.”
Laurell K. Hamilton (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You're beautiful. You're beautiful. You're beautiful, it's true. I saw your face in a crowded place, And I don't know what to do. 'Cause I'll never be with you.”
James Blunt (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Liberal education is liberation from vulgarity. The Greeks had a beautiful word for “vulgarity”; they called it apeirokalia, lack of experience in things beautiful. Liberal education supplies us with experience in things beautiful.”
Leo Strauss (1899–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The beautiful in nature is the unmarred result of God's first creative or forming will,and ..the beautiful in art is the result of an unmistaken working of man in accordance with the beautiful in nature.”
William Barnes (1801–1886) first seen 1861 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Thoughts on Beauty in Art- Article in MacMillan's Magazine 1861.
“It is beautiful to talk about beautiful things and even more beautiful to silently gaze at them.”
Dejan Stojanovic (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One can do such lovely things with so little. Subjects that are too beautiful end by appearing theatrical – take Switzerland, for example. Think of all the beautiful little things Corot did at Gisors; two willows, a little water, a bridge, like the picture in the Universal Exhibition. What a masterpiece!.. .Everything is beautiful, all that matters is to be able to interpret.”
Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) first seen 1892 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter to his son Lucien, 26 July 1892, as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock - , Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 146.
“Beautiful is what we see, More Beautiful is what we know, most Beautiful by far is what we don't.”
Nicolas Steno (1638–1686) said by 1686 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was seeing this beautiful [white] school, large concrete courtyard, a beautiful playground,” she says. “I thought, ‘I know what they’re fighting for. They’re fighting so I can go to that beautiful school and have a playground.’”
Sylvia Mendez (born 1923) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Although there are a number of things today that don’t look like the Makerere I was in. The Makerere that I entered was extremely beautiful. We had beautiful lawns and there were very few but beautiful buildings”
Joyce Mpanga (1934–2023) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: https://news.mak.ac.ug/2022/11/joyce-mpanga-it-was-by-luck-that-i-made-it-to-makerere/
“A beautiful woman, even at seventy, is a beautiful woman, damn it, and if she has talent, you have to admit it, not despise the beautiful woman.”
Gina Lollobrigida (1927–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you have patience, then you'll also have love. Patience leads to love. If you forcefully open the petals of a bud, you won't be able to enjoy its beauty and fragrance. Only when it blossoms by following its natural course, will the beauty and fragrance of a flower unfold.”
Mata Amritanandamayi (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When death hath poured oblivion through my veins And brought me home, as all are brought, to lie In that vast house, common to serfs and thanes,— I shall not die, I shall not utterly die, For beauty born of beauty—that remains.”
Madison Cawein (1865–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sudden thy silent beauty on me shone, Fair as the moon had given thee all her spell. Then, as Endymion had found on earth, In unchanged beauty but in fashion changed, Her whom I loved so long; so felt I then, Not that a new love in my heart had birth, But that the old, that far from reach had ranged, Was now on earth, and to be loved of men.”
Francis William Bourdillon (1852–1921) first seen 1875 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sonnet I" in The Galaxy Vol. XIX, (January - June 1875), p. 747.
“Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare. Let all who prate of Beauty hold their peace, And lay them prone upon the earth and cease To ponder on themselves, the while they stare At nothing, intricately drawn nowhere.”
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sonnet XXII from The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems (1923)
“Beauty is as tangible as blood, in a way. It is a separate, distinct force that inhabits the bodies of men and women. You must have noticed the vacuity that accompanies perfect beauty in so many women...the force so strong that it drives out all other forces and lives vampirishly at the expense of intelligence and goodness and conscience and all else.”
C. L. Moore (1911–1987) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Black Thirst (1934); p. 64
“The moral value of the Image in Art must consist in its power to arouse a conviction of Beauty.If a conviction of Beauty is aroused, all images of Passion and Action allied to it will become vitalized.Vitality in a work of Art thus becomes a communicable element in mind, and so fulfils its function of stimulating vitality in Life.”
Norman Lindsay (1879–1969) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Sex Synonym in Art", in Vision (May 1923), p. 22
“All Love is Beauty, and all Beauty—Love!”
Richard Henry Stoddard (1825–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty is a reflection of divine beatitude; and since God is Truth, the reflection of His beatitude will be that blend of happiness and truth found in all beauty.”
Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source