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
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
Beauty
LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading
“There's a double beauty whenever a swan Swims on a lake with her double thereon.”
Thomas Hood (1799–1845) said by 1845 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Her Honeymoon; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Men are like that. They marry for reasons that have nothing to do with what they expect from matrimony and then damn their wives for not being what they want later. They marry for beauty and charm and sex, and then expect their wives to be sensible, parsimonious and efficient.”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She sighed. “Things the Creator Himself made have perished, Beauty, because of what someone else does. The Holy One makes a tree that lives for four thousand years, and someone chops it down to make paper to package chewing gum. The Creator makes whales who sing in the deep, and men kill them to put their oil in lipsticks.”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The lustful who punish beauty would be wiser to control lust.”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why? Because a woman's beauty does not belong to her alone. It is part of the bounty she brings into the world. She has a duty to share it.”
J. M. Coetzee (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why does love, even such love as he claims to practise, need the spectacle of beauty to bring it to life? What, in the abstract, do shapely legs have to do with love, or for that matter with desire? Or is that just the nature of nature, about which one does not ask questions?”
J. M. Coetzee (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I always say beauty is only sin deep.”
Saki (1870–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thy duty do? rejoined the voice, Ah, do it, do it, and rejoice; But shalt thou then, when all is done, Enjoy a love, embrace a beauty Like these, that may be seen and won In life, whose course will then be run; Or wilt thou be where there is none? I know not, I will do my duty.”
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) first seen 1847 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Questioning Spirit, st. 2 (1847)
“Far up the dim twilight fluttered Moth-wings of vapour and flame: The lights danced over the mountains, Star after star they came. The lights grew thicker unheeded, For silent and still were we; Our hearts were drunk with a beauty Our eyes could never see.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Unknown God" (1913)
“The great deep thrills for through it everywhere The breath of beauty blows.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I saw how all the trembling ages past, Moulded to her by deep and deeper breath, Neared to the hour when Beauty breathes her last And knows herself in death.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This mood hath known all beauty for it sees O'erwhelmed majesties In these pale forms, and kingly crowns of gold On brows no longer bold, And through the shadowy terrors of their hell The love for which they fell, And how desire which cast them in the deep Called God too from his sleep.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I must endure the torturing ray, And, with all beauty, all desire. Ah, time-long must the effort be, And far the way that I must go To bring my spirit unto thee, Behind the glass, within the glow.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The tower of heaven turns darker blue; a starry sparkle now begins; The mystery and magnificence, the myriad beauty and the sins Come back to me.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh real as in dream all this; and then a hand on mine is laid: The wave of phantom time withdraws; and that young Babylonian maid, One drop of beauty left behind from all the flowing of that tide, Is looking with the self-same eyes, and here in Ireland by my side. Oh, light our life in Babylon, but Babylon has taken wings, While we are in the calm and proud procession of eternal things.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where the ring of twilight gleams Round the sanctuary wrought, Whispers haunt me — in my dreams We are one yet know it not. Some for beauty follow long Flying traces; some there be Seek thee only for a song: I to lose myself in thee.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Image of beauty, when I gaze on thee, Trembling I waken to a mystery, How through one door we go to life or death By spirit kindled or the sensual breath.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Well, when all is said and done Best within my narrow way, May some angel of the sun Muse memorial o'er my clay: 'Here was beauty all betrayed From the freedom of her state; From her human uses stayed On an idle rhyme to wait.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Heart-hidden from the outer things I rose; The spirit woke anew in nightly birth Unto the vastness where forever glows The star-soul of the earth. There all alone in primal ecstasy, Within her depths where revels never tire, The Olden Beauty shines: each thought of me Is veined through with its fire.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He bent above: so still her breath What air she breathed he could not say, Whether in worlds of life or death: So softly ebbed away, away The life that had been light to him, So fled her beauty leaving dim The emptying chambers of his heart Thrilled only by the pang and smart, The dull and throbbing agony That suffers still, yet knows not why.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The hope lives on age after age, Earth with its beauty might be won For labor as a heritage, For this has Ireland lost a son.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To live fully is to recognize the beauty of the now, unburdened by the past or future.”
Alicia Keys (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What really dissatisfies in American civilisation is the want of the interesting, a want due chiefly to the want of those two great elements of the interesting, which are elevation and beauty.”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) first seen 1888 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Civilization in the United States (1888)
“And that sweet city with her dreaming spires, She needs not June for beauty’s heightening.”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power.”
George Meredith (1828–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tell me now in what hidden way is Lady Flora the lovely Roman? Where's Hipparchia, and where is Thais, Neither of them the fairer woman? Where is Echo, beheld of no man, Only heard on river and mere— She whose beauty was more than human?— But where are the snows of yester-year?”
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) first seen 1870 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Ballad of Dead Ladies, st. 1 (1870).
“Beauty like hers is genius.”
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now kiss, and think that there are really those, My own high-bosom'd beauty, who increase Vain gold, vain lore, and yet might choose our way! Through many years they toil; then on a day They die not, — for their life was death, — but cease; And round their narrow lips the mould falls close.”
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So you must always remember / that time ends the beauty”
Mellin de Saint-Gelais (1491–1558) said by 1558 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An artistic atmosphere does not create artists a literary atmosphere does not create literators; poets and painters spring up where there was never a verse made or a picture seen. This suggests that God is no more idle now than He was at the beginning, but that He is still and forever shaping the human chaos into the instruments and means of beauty.”
William Dean Howells (1837–1920) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: My Literary Passions (1895)
“For beauty being the best of all we know Sums up the unsearchable and secret aims Of nature.”
Robert Bridges (1844–1930) said by 1930 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Scatter the clouds that hide The face of heaven, and show Where sweet peace doth abide, Where Truth and Beauty grow.”
Robert Bridges (1844–1930) said by 1930 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And now impatiently despairest, see How nought is changed: Joy's wisdom is attired Splended for others' eyes if not for thee: Not love or beauty or youth from earth is fled: If they delite thee not, 'tis thou art dead.”
Robert Bridges (1844–1930) said by 1930 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty is the highest of all these occult influences, the quality of appearances that thru' the sense wakeneth spiritual emotion in the mind of man.”
Robert Bridges (1844–1930) said by 1930 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty, the eternal Spouse of the Wisdom of God and Angel of his Presence thru' all creation.”
Robert Bridges (1844–1930) said by 1930 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As to the pretension of civilized persons to admire gems or gold for their intrinsic beauty apart from their value, I suspect that was a more or less unconscious sham.”
Edward Bellamy (1850–1898) said by 1898 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O, with what freshness, what solemnity and beauty, is each new day born; as if to say to insensate man, "Behold! thou hast one more chance! Strive for immortal glory!" There is no speech nor language where this voice is not heard; but the bold, bad man heard it not. He woke with an oath and a curse. What to him was the gold and purple, the daily miracle of morning!”
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty was too rare in the world to be wasted.”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty didn’t last. Brains did.”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She hated the calendar, hated the mirror and what it showed her every morning. A handsome woman, that’s what you are. She would almost rather have been ugly. Then she wouldn’t have to remember the beauty she had been not so long ago.”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From the way of Go, the beauty of Japan and the Orient had fled. Everything had become science and regulation. The road to advancement in rank, which controlled the life of a player, had become a meticulous point system. One conducted the battle only to win, and there was no margin for remembering the dignity and the fragrance of Go as an art.”
Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wistaria sprays, as they trail in the breeze, suggest softness, gentleness, reticence. Disappearing and then appearing again in the early summer greenery, they have in them that feeling for the poignant beauty of things long characterized by the Japanese as mono no aware.”
Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, even one's own — even more, one's own, for that has been put in our care and we are responsible for its well-being.”
Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Herr Freytag" in Ship of Fools (1962) Pt. 3
“Why? Why do you trust me?” The Hirebrand’s eyes gleamed as if he were on the verge of tears, but he was smiling as he said, “You are a man who knows the value of beauty.”
Stephen R. Donaldson (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Asanas bring perfection in body, beauty in form,grace, strength, compactness, and the harness and brilliance of a diamond.”
Patañjali (active around 201 BC) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...that very loyalty to the past with its dream of beauty and with its real hardness and hardships. These things save us from what is the greatest peril of our age, the peril of materialism....The struggle against materialism in the hearts of our people is one of the greatest struggles of this age.”
Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech upon receiving the Freedom of the Burgh of Inverness, Scotland (13 June 1930), published in This Torch of Freedom (1935), pp. 191-192.
“Since we have quaffed the beaker of Thy love, we yield our hearts and make our Lives Thy ransom: since we come again into Thy street, we turn our backs on all that is, save Thee. Our souls are bound to serve Thee, though in grief, and we have died to selfhood! We are captives of Thy love and have not strength to flee. Thy beauty's fever has lit a flame: shall not our hearts be burned?”
Fakhruddin 'Iraqi (1213–1289) said by 1289 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We Yield Our Hearts" ~ Poetry for the Spirit: Poems of Universal Wisdom and Beauty (2002) Edited by Alan Jacobs
“The Beloved's Loveliness owns a hundred thousand faces; gaze upon a different fair one in every atom; for She needs must show to every separate thing a different aspect of Her beauty.”
Fakhruddin 'Iraqi (1213–1289) said by 1289 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Expressions are many but Thy loveliness is one; Each of us refers to that single Beauty.”
Fakhruddin 'Iraqi (1213–1289) said by 1289 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He had come on her that morning in a moment of disarray; her face had been pale and altered, and the diminution of her beauty had lent her a poignant charm. That is how she looks when she is alone! had been his first thought; and the second was to note in her the change which his coming produced.”
Edith Wharton (1862–1937) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The House of Mirth" (1905), bk. 1, ch. 6