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Beauty
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“Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.”
W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The beauty of a naked body is felt only by the dressed races.”
Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1930–2022) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Source:"Defence and Illustration of Classical Construction," Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris, 15 September 1952)
“A heart without music is like beauty without melancholy.”
Emil Cioran (1911–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.”
George Eliot (1819–1880) said by 1880 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Stowed away in a Montreal lumber room The Discobolus standeth and turneth his face to the wall; Dusty, cobweb-covered, maimed and set at naught, Beauty crieth in an attic and no man regardeth: O God! O Montreal!”
Samuel Butler (novelist) first seen 1884 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Psalm of Montreal, st. 1 (1884)
“It is a great mortification to the vanity of man, that his utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of nature's productions, either for beauty or value. Art is only the under-workman, and is employed to give a few strokes of embellishment to those pieces, which come from the hand of the master”
David Hume (1711–1776) said by 1776 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sentiments of men often differ with regard to beauty and deformity of all kinds, even while their general discourse is the same ... In all matters of opinion and science, the case is opposite: The difference among men is there oftener found to lie in generals than in particulars; and to be less in reality than in appearance.”
David Hume (1711–1776) said by 1776 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But though there be naturally a wide difference in point of delicacy between one person and another, nothing tends further to encrease and improve this talent, than practice in a particular art, and the frequent survey or contemplation of a particular species of beauty.”
David Hume (1711–1776) said by 1776 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She, though in full-blown flower of glorious beauty, Grows cold even in the summer of her age.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When beauty fires the blood, how love exalts the mind!”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Were I no queen, did you my beauty weigh, My youth in bloom, your age in its decay.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh, fame is as the moon above, Whose sun of light and life is love. There is more in the smile of one gentle eye Then the thousand pages of history; Than the loudest plaudits the crowd can raise. Take the gems in glory's coronal, And one smile of beauty is worth them all.—”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1823 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Inez from The London Literary Gazette (24th May 1823)
“'T was night, but night which the imperial moon, Regal in her full beauty, turn'd to noon, But still the noon of midnight; though the ray Was clear and bright, it was not that of day;”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm weary, I'm weary. Oh! pleasure is pain When its spell has been broken again and again. I am weary of smiles that are bought and are sold, I am weary of beauty whose fetters are gold, I am weary of wealth—what makes it of me But that which the basest and lowest might be?”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She fell as falls the rose in spring, The fairest are ever most perishing, Yet lingers that tale of sorrow and love, Of the Christian maid and her Moslem love ; A tale to be told in the twilight hour, For the beauty's tears in her lonely bower.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is an antique gem, on which her brow Retains its graven beauty even now.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Had my eye never on the beauty dwelt Of human face, and my ear never drank The music of a human voice; I feel My spirit would have pour'd itself in song, Have learn'd a language from the rustling leaves, The singing of the birds, and of the tide.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Which is the best,— Beauty and glory, in a southern clime, Mingled with thunder, tempest ; or the calm Of skies that scarcely change, which, at the least, If much of shine they have not, have no storms?”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O beauty of the midnight skies! O mystery of each distant star ! O dreaming hours, whose magic lies In rest and calm, with Day afar! Thanks for the higher moods that wake Our thoughtful and immortal part !— Out on our life, could we not make A spiritual temple of the heart ?”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But who e'er turned from beauty's ray For fear of future shade; Or who e'er flung a rose away Because that rose might fade.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the loveliest daughters of that land, Divinest Greece ! that taught the painter's hand To give eternity to loveliness ; One of those dark-eyed maids, to whom belong The glory and the beauty of each Song Thy poets breathed, for it was theirs to bless With life the pencil and the lyre's dreams, Giving reality to visioned gleams Of bright divinities.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1823 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Leander and Hero from The London Literary Gazette (22nd February 1823)
“THE Moon is sailing o'er the sky, But lonely all, as if she pined For somewhat of companionship, And felt it was in vain she shined: Earth is her mirror, and the stars Are as the court around her throne; She is a beauty and a queen; But what is this? she is alone.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1826 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Moon from The London Literary Gazette (25th March 1826)
“Like prisoners escaped during night from their prison, The waters fling gaily their spray to the sun; Who can tell me from whence that glad river has risen? Who can say whence it springs in its beauty?—not one.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1827 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Minstrel’s Monitor from Literary Souvenir, 1827
“A soft and blue Italian sky, — the blue That painters and that poets love, — the blue The lover worships in the maiden's eyes, Whose beauty is their power and spell.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was a face, with nothing but the blush To mark it from the sculptured features round : As perfect in its beauty ; but the flush Of earthly warmth and earthly feeling crowned The master-piece of nature ;— that rich gush Was from the heart, which thus a language found, The eloquence of truth and silence ever : — Words, sighs, and smiles deceive, but blushes never.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1825 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (24th December 1825) Metrical Fragments - No.1 Anecdote of Canova (under the pen name Iole)
“Which is the best, Beauty and glory in a passionate clime, Mingled with thunder, tempest; — or the calm Of skies that scarcely change — which, at the least, If much of shine they have not, have no storms?”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1826 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (20th May 1826) Life
“One of those gifted ones that walk the earth, Like angels in their beauty, and the while The air is filled with music from their wings.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1829 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (31st January 1829) Lines to the Author after Reading the Sorrows of Rosalie
“Statues to whose rest seem'd given Not the life of earth but heaven ; For each statue here enshrined What in the immortal mind Makes its beauty and its power — Genius's eternal dower :”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1831 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (25th June 1831) The Hall of Statues
“A woman always exaggerates her beauty and its influence when they are past ; and it was a perpetual grief to think what her pretty face might have done for her.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lone upon a mountain, the pine-trees wailing round him, Lone upon a mountain the Grecian youth is laid ; Sleep, mystic sleep, for many a year has bound him, Yet his beauty, like a statue's pale and fair, is undecay'd. When will he awaken ?”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The city and the crowd unidealise love; and love, in the young warm heart of a girl, should be a dream apart from all commoner emotions — as sweet and as ethereal as the blush with which it is born and dies. Beauty gives its own gracefulness to love — there must be romance blended with the passion inspired by the very lovely face which the mirror reflected.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That beauty is not, as fond men misdeem, An outward shew of things, that only seem.”
Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) said by 1599 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The flowers anew returning seasons bring! But beauty faded has no second spring.”
Ambrose Philips (1674–1749) first seen 1709 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lobbing, The First Pastoral (1709), line 55.
“Beauty from order springs.”
William King (1663–1712) said by 1712 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The saying that beauty is but skin deep is but a skin-deep saying.”
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty is but a flower Which wrinkles will devour.”
Thomas Nashe (1567–1601) first seen 1588 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lines 1588–1589 ("In Time of Pestilence, 1593", st. 3)
“that's the beauty of an art school: as long as you can pay the tuition, they will never, even in the gentlest way, suggest that you have no talent.”
David Sedaris (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Poet's License! — 't is the right, Within the rule of duty, To look on all delightful things Throughout the world of beauty. To gaze with rapture at the stars That in the skies are glowing; To see the gems of perfect dye That in the woods are growing, — And more than sage astronomer, And more than learned florist, To read the glorious homilies Of Firmament and Forest.”
John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887) said by 1887 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Who says that fictions only and false hair Become a verse? Is there in truth no beauty? Is all good structure in a winding stair?”
George Herbert (1593–1633) said by 1633 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A poore beauty finds more lovers than husbands.”
George Herbert (1593–1633) said by 1633 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Money and friendship bribe justice. Beauty is potent, but money is omnipotent.”
John Ray (1627–1705) said by 1705 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Light, God's eldest daughter, is a principal beauty in a building.”
Thomas Fuller (1608–1661) said by 1661 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Order is the shape upon which beauty depends.”
Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When the last days were upon me, and the ugly trifles of existence began to drive me to madness like the small drops of water torturers let fall ceaselessly upon one spot of their victim's body, I loved the irradiate refuge of sleep. In my dreams I found a little of the beauty I had vainly sought in life, and wandered through old gardens and enchanted woods.”
H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ex Oblivione" - First published in The United Amateur, 20, No. 4 (March 1921)<!-- p. 59-60
“Helen, thy beauty is to me Like those Nicean barks of yore, That gently, o'er a perfumed sea, The weary, wayworn wanderer bore To his own native shore.On desperate seas long wont to roam, Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, Thy Naiad airs have brought me home To the glory that was Greece And the grandeur that was Rome.”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) first seen 1831 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Helen", st. 1-2 (1831).
“Thou wouldst be loved? — then let thy heart From its present pathway part not! Being everything which now thou art, Be nothing which thou art not. So with the world thy gentle ways, Thy grace, thy more than beauty, Shall be an endless theme of praise, And love — a simple duty.”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Frances S. Osgood" (1845).
“Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem.”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would define, in brief, the Poetry of words as the Rhythmical Creation of Beauty. Its sole arbiter is taste. With the intellect or with the conscience, it has only collateral relations. Unless incidentally, it has no concern whatever either with duty or with truth.”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My Daphne's hair is twisted gold, Bright stars a-piece her eyes do hold, My Daphne's brow enthrones the graces, My Daphne's beauty stains all faces; On Daphne's cheek grow rose and cherry, On Daphne's lip a sweeter berry.”
John Lyly (1554–1606) said by 1606 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source