Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,808 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Beauty
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“The man who breaks away from the law of beauty, the feeling for aesthetics and harmony, of which every human heart is sensible, even when it is unable to give it expression, and finds his main principle in the thought of some special tendency, some definite solution of what are rather technical problems, sins against the primary source and origin of art.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is.”
Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Leaving School—II", The London Magazine (May 1963)
“When I began to write as a very young person in a rigidly racist and inhibited colonial society, I felt, as many others did, that I existed marginally on the edge of the world of ideas, of imagination and beauty. These, taking shape in poetry and fiction, drama, painting and sculpture, were exclusive to that distant realm known as 'overseas'.”
Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They were letting off fireworks down at the waterfront, the sky exploding in grenades of colour. Whatever it is that pulls the pin, that hurls you past the boundaries of your own life into a brief and total beauty - even for a moment - it is enough.”
Jeanette Winterson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.”
John Ruskin (1819–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not possible to find a landscape, which if painted precisely as it is, will not make an impressive picture. No one knows, till he has tried, what strange beauty and subtle composition is prepared to his hand by Nature.”
John Ruskin (1819–1900) first seen 1856 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Volume III, part V, chapter II (1856)
“None of you knows what creativity means. To paint a picture, to write a poem? No! To recast one’s whole age, to impose upon it the stamp of one’s will, to fill it with beauty, to overwhelm it, to overpower it with one’s spirit.”
Christian Morgenstern (1871–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: cited in Zarathustra’s Children (2000), p. 178
“Strength and beauty are the blessings of youth; temperance, however, is the flower of old age.”
Democritus (461–361 BC) said by 361 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fragment quoted in H. Diels and W. Kranz (eds.) Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, Vol. II (1952), no. 294; reference taken from Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations (2005), p. 261
“History, like beauty, depends largely on the beholder, so when you read that, for example, David Livingstone discovered the Victoria Falls, you might be forgiven for thinking that there was nobody around the Falls until Livingstone arrived on the scene.”
Desmond Tutu (1931–2021) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hope and Suffering: Sermons and Speeches (1984)
“On the information sheet in a New York hotel, I recently read: 'Dear guest! To guarantee that you will fully enjoy your stay with us, this hotel is totally smoke-free. For any infringement of this regulation, you will be charged $200.' The beauty of this formulation, taken literally, is that you are to be punished for refusing to fully enjoy your stay.”
Slavoj Žižek (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But the beauty is not the madness Tho’ my errors and wrecks lie about me. And I am not a demigod, I cannot make it cohere.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In simple hearts the feeling for the beauty and grandeur of nature is a hundred-fold stronger and more vivid than in us, ecstatic composers of narratives in words and on paper.”
Mikhail Lermontov (1814–1841) said by 1841 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No, it is not you I love so ardently, The glitter of your beauty is not for me: I love in you my past suffering And my perished youth.”
Mikhail Lermontov (1814–1841) first seen 1841 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No, it is not you I love so ardently..." (1841)
“Be not lifted up because of thy strength or beauty of body, for with only a slight sickness it will fail and wither away. Be not vain of thy skilfulness or ability, lest thou displease God, from whom cometh every good gift which we have.”
Thomas à Kempis (1379–1471) said by 1471 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“thou art far weaker than thou art able to comprehend. Let, therefore, nothing which thou doest seem to thee great; let nothing be grand, nothing of value or beauty, nothing worthy of honour, nothing lofty, nothing praiseworthy or desirable, save what is eternal”
Thomas à Kempis (1379–1471) said by 1471 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He was searching Blindly night and day This life, there must be more Breaking beauty, Just to stay awake His heart was like a stone”
Moby (born 1965) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Last Day, from the album Innocents (October 1, 2013), co-written with Skylar Grey.
Also quoted by: Skylar Grey
“Beauty is one in the universe, and, whatever form it assumes, it always arouses a religious feeling in the hearts of mankind.”
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël (1766–1817) said by 1817 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The word "beauty" is as easy to use as the word "degenerate." Both come in handy when one does or does not agree with you.”
Charles Ives (1874–1954) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Essays Before a Sonata (1920), p. 77.
“A hint of ‘I’m so pleased that you strong, handsome, stalwart men are going to stand between my flower-like beauty and danger,’ wouldn’t hurt either”
Alice Borchardt (1939–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Without realizing it, the individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty even in times of great distress.”
Milan Kundera (1929–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidences in his daily life. For he thereby deprives his life of a dimension of beauty.”
Milan Kundera (1929–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sabina’s initial inner revolt against Communism was aesthetic rather than ethical in character. What repelled her was not nearly so much the ugliness of the Communist world (ruined castles transformed into cow sheds) as the mask of beauty it tried to wear — in other words, Communist kitsch.”
Milan Kundera (1929–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ugliness you have to know, beauty you can't teach ~ Disappear”
Steve Kilbey (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) first seen 1354 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: De remediis utriusque fortunae (1354), Book II
“She thought that most women make a great mistake in allowing dress to be the master instead of the servant of their good looks; many women were, she considered, entirely crushed and made insignificant by the beauty of their clothes.”
Ada Leverson (1862–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's nothing that allays an angry mind So soon as a sweet beauty.”
John Fletcher (1579–1625) said by 1625 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That's the beauty of this country — we can have different opinions and coexist and be amused by each other and hurt and offended.”
Sarah Jessica Parker (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Am I a gangster or a murderer? Of what crime do I stand Condemned? I made the whole world weep At the beauty of my land.”
Boris Pasternak (1890–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thought and beauty, like a hurricane or waves, should not know conventional, delimited forms.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) said by 1904 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you know when you may concede your insignificance? In front of God or, perhaps, in front of the intellect, beauty, or nature, but not in front of people. Among people, one must be conscious of one’s dignity.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) first seen 1879 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his brother, M.P. Chekhov (April 1879)
“Who but a stupid barbarian could burn so much beauty in his stove and destroy that which he cannot make?”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) said by 1904 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, which is the only fact we have.”
James Baldwin (1924–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough. No record of it needs to be kept and you don't need someone to share it with or tell it to. When that happens — that letting go — you let go because you can.”
Toni Morrison (1931–2019) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tar Baby (1981)
“For some strange reason we don't go to charming, light movies anymore. People expect a movie to be heavy and turgid, like "American Beauty." We've become a heavy-handed society.”
Pauline Kael (1919–2001) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Perils of Being Pauline," interview with Francis Davis, The New Yorker (October 2001).
“Down, wanton, down! Have you no shame That at the whisper of Love’s name, Or Beauty’s, presto! up you raise Your angry head and stand at gaze?”
Robert Graves (1895–1985) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Down, Wanton, Down!," lines 1-4, from Poems 1930-1933 (1933)
“I know no subject more elevating, more amazing, more ready to the poetical enthusiasm, the philosophical reflection, and the moral sentiment than the works of nature. Where can we meet such variety, such beauty, such magnificence?”
James Thomson (poet, born 1700) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The negligence of Nature wide and wild, Where, undisguised by mimic art, she spreads Unbounded beauty to the roving eye.”
James Thomson (poet, born 1700) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The beauty of the world consists wholly of sweet mutual consents, either within itself or with the supreme being.”
Jonathan Edwards (theologian) first seen 1725 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Beauty of the World" (c.1725), from the notebook The Images of Divine Things, The Shadows of Divine Things, The Language and Lessons of Nature (published 1948).
“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) said by 1912 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's not movies and it's not "fine art." The beauty of a comic is that it's clear, direct communication. My work is getting simpler and more cartoony because I'm much more interested in communication now than in any illustrative value.”
Frank Miller (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the dark womb where I began My mother's life made me a man. Through all the months of human birth Her beauty fed my common earth. I cannot see, nor breathe, nor stir, But through the death of some of her.”
John Masefield (1878–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most wonderful of all things in life, I believe, is the discovery of another human being with whom one's relationship has a glowing depth, beauty, and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing, it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of Divine accident.”
Hugh Walpole (1884–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Wisdom for the Soul : Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 597
“Without the smile from partial beauty won, Oh what were man? — a world without a sun.”
Thomas Campbell (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Thomas Campbell
“There shall he love when genial morn appears, Like pensive Beauty smiling in her tears.”
Thomas Campbell (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Thomas Campbell
“To sigh, yet feel no pain; To weep, yet scarce know why; To sport an hour with Beauty's chain, Then throw it idly by.”
Thomas Moore (1779–1852) said by 1852 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The civil state is humbly to be implored to provide in their high wisdom for the security of all the respective consciences, in their respective meetings, assemblings, worshipings, preachings, disputings, etc., and that civil peace and the beauty of civility and humanity be maintained among the chief opposers and dissenters.”
Roger Williams (theologian) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perfect health, like perfect beauty, is a rare thing; and so, it seems, is perfect disease.”
Peter Mere Latham (1789–1875) said by 1875 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Infertility Counseling: A Comprehensive Handbook for Clinicians - Page 179 by Linda Hammer Burns, Sharon N. Covington - Medical - 2000.
“The doctrine of the cynics is the Ideal reversed, the parody of physical and moral beauty, the crime of mind, the degradation of imagination. I could not take pleasure in it. There was too much enthusiasm within me to permit me to crawl through those sinks of the brain. My nature had wings. The dangers to which I was exposed were above, not below.”
Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) said by 1869 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think there is a profound and enduring beauty in simplicity; in clarity, in efficiency. True simplicity is derived from so much more than just the absence of clutter and ornamentation. It's about bringing order to complexity.”
Jonathan Ive (born 1967) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ive explaining the design philosophy behind iOS 7 in its product video, shown at WWDC 2013.
“They grew in beauty side by side, They filled one home with glee: Their graves are severed far and wide By mount and stream and sea.”
Felicia Hemans (1793–1835) said by 1835 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Felicia D. Hemans