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Beauty

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“Beauty is something that disappears when you try to define it.”
Iain Banks (1954–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The profoundness of our emotions comes from the sufficiency of these lines and these colors to explain themselves.. ..everything is contained in the beauty of the work.”
Maurice Denis (1870–1943) first seen 1890 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote 1890, from Denis' essay published in the review 'Art et Critique'; as cited on Wikipedia: Maurice Denis - reference [13]
“The common error of us all [in late Impressionism] was to search above all for the light. It would have been better first to search for the Kingdom of God and his justice, that is to say for the expression of our spirit in beauty, and the rest would have arrived naturally.”
Maurice Denis (1870–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I produce a form, an impression of light, a beauty of tones.. .The etchings are now full of life, an ecstasy, a dance, a gentle motion and fluctuation in tones.”
Emil Nolde (1867–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This business of seeing divine interconnected beauty in people has been happening more and more lately, and I put it down to meditating too much.”
Russell Brand (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty is an enormous, unmerited gift given randomly, stupidly.”
Khaled Hosseini (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All my life I've been working on the work - every canvas a sentence or paragraph of it. Each picture is only an approximation of what you want. That's the beauty of being an artist; you can never make the absolute statement, but the desire to do so as an approximation keeps you going.”
Robert Motherwell (1915–1991) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as cited by Grace Glueck, in 'Robert Motherwell, Master of Abstract, Dies', by Grace Glueck, 'New York Times, 18 July 1991
“I have always been drawn to the beauty and the tragedy of Diana’s life which I hope I’ve captured in this new series of paintings. I wanted to show her”
Stella Vine (born 1969) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kallaway, Stella Vine's Latest Exhibition Modern Art Oxford, (2007-07-14).
“Beauty in this Iron Age must turn From fluid living rainbow shapes to torn And sootened fragments, ashes in an urn On whose gray surface runes are traced by a Norn Who hopes to wake the Future to arise In Phoenix-fashion, and to shine with rays To blast the sight of modern men whose dyes Of selfishness and lust have stained our days...”
Philip José Farmer (1918–2009) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Beauty in This Iron Age" in Starlanes #11 (Fall 1953); re-published in Pearls From Peoria (2006)
“Reader, pray that soon this Iron Age Will crumble, and Beauty escape the rusting cage.”
Philip José Farmer (1918–2009) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Beauty in This Iron Age" in Starlanes #11 (Fall 1953); re-published in Pearls From Peoria (2006)
“We too. No wisdom to utter. You've beauty, flux, and terror To tell. So've I. And they're Very hard to mutter Through so much chatter and stutter.”
Philip José Farmer (1918–2009) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Black Squirrel on Cottonwood Limb's Tip" in Skyhook #23 (Winter 1954-55); re-published in Pearls From Peoria (2006)
“Drowned idols swirl like seeds in chaos' wine. Look, Job! Caught Beauty, held to light, now apes A good, now evil, thing — the shifting sign And spectrum of archaic, psychic shapes.”
Philip José Farmer (1918–2009) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Job's Leviathan" in JD Argassy #58 (1961); re-published in Pearls From Peoria (2006)
“The intensity with which a subject is grasped (still life's, portraits, or creations of the imagination) – that is what makes for beauty in art.”
Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907) first seen 1899 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1899; as quoted in Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 198
“Last year I wrote: 'the intensity with which a subject is grasped, that is what makes for beauty in art'. Isn't it also true for love?”
Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907) first seen 1899 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1899; as quoted in Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991
“There are a lot more roses and tulips around today, in a lot more places, then there were before people took an interest in them. For a flower the path to world domination passes through humanity’s ever-shifting ideals of beauty.”
Michael Pollan (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every minute everything is different everywhere. It is all flowing.. .The duty or beauty of a painting is that there is no reason to do it nor any reason not to. It can be done as a direct act or contact with the moment and that is the moment you are awake and moving. It all passes and is never true literally as the present again leaving more work to be done.”
Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Rauschenberg (1961), as cited in Introduction, Roberta Bernstein, from catalog 'The White and Black Paintings'
“A kiss would kill me, woman, If beauty were not death... By what attraction Am I drawn, what morn forgotten by the prophets That pours on the dying distance its sad rites?”
Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898) said by 1898 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I certainly know that I owe it [the Copernican theory] this duty, that as I have attested it as true in my deepest soul, and as I contemplate its beauty with incredible and ravishing delight, I should also publicly defend it to my readers with all the force at my command.”
Johannes Kepler (1572–1630) said by 1630 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When the last child cries for a crust of bread; When the last man dies for just words that he said; When there's shelter over the poorest head, We shall be free.When the last thing we notice is the color of skin, And the first thing we look for is the beauty within, When the skies and the oceans are clean again, Then we shall be free.”
Garth Brooks (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Easily moved by beauty—such is my nature. I take a few phrases and they just turn into poems”
Ryōkan (1758–1831) said by 1831 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As translated in Great Fool: Zen Master Ryōkan; Poems, Letters, and Other Writings (1996) by Ryūichi Abé and Peter Haskel, p. 117
“As in geometry, the oblique must be known, as well as the right; and in arithmetic, the odd as well as the even; so in actions of life, who seeth not the filthiness of evil, wanteth a great foil to perceive the beauty of virtue.”
Philip Sidney (1554–1586) said by 1586 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney; with remarks, by Miss Porter (1807), p. 23. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme
“Let us not judge life by its number of breaths, but by the number of times that breath is held, or lost, either under a deep emotion caused by love, or when we stand before an object of interest or beauty.”
William Henry Davies (1871–1940) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Camp", in Later Days (1927)
“No time to see, in broad daylight, Streams full of stars, like skies at night. No time to turn at Beauty's glance, And watch her feet, how they can dance.”
William Henry Davies (1871–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Models of manly beauty are rare out of novels, and seldom interesting in them.”
F. Anstey (1856–1934) said by 1934 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I will see beauty and goodness in all things. From all that is unlovely shall my vision be immune.”
Walter Russell (1871–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Verse should be as natural As the small tuber that feeds on muck And grows slowly from obtuse soil To the white flower of immortal beauty”
R. S. Thomas (1913–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have known exile and a wild passion Of longing changing to a cold ache. King, beggar and fool, I have been all by turns, Knowing the body’s sweetness, the mind’s treason; Taliesin still, I show you a new world, risen, Stubborn with beauty, out of the heart’s need.”
R. S. Thomas (1913–2000) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Taliesin 1952
“I think that it's when we step out of the road, step outside the box, become our own person and we walk fearlessly down paths other people wouldn't look at, that true progress comes. And sometimes true beauty as well.”
John McAfee (1945–2021) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: BBC News: "John McAfee: Addict, coder, runaway" (11 October 2013)
“It’s a thing of beauty, the ability to spin the cloth of reality, and you’re a sucker for it: Isn’t story-telling what being human is all about?”
Charles Stross (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty may be skin-deep, but horror goes all the way down to the desiccated bone beneath.”
Charles Stross (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sino-Japanese relations will certainly brighten more in the future and the flowers of friendly Sino-Japanese relations will increase their beauty.”
Wen Jiabao (born 1942) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Wen Jiabao (2007) cited in: China's Wen seeks to charm Japan as ties thaw 13 April 2007
“I believe that architects should design gardens to be used, as much as the houses they build, to develop a sense of beauty and the taste and inclination toward the fine arts and other spiritual values.”
Luis Barragán (1902–1988) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Contemporary Architects (1980) by Muriel Emanuel, p. 72
“The good Socialist works with religious zeal for the redemption of mankind from the evils of poverty and ignorance. ... He is conscious of the beauty of the ideal ... he works on ... for the deliverance of the human spirit from the enslavement of material things.”
Herbert Morrison (1888–1965) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Manchester Guardian (2 July 1934), quoted in Bernard Donoughue and George Jones, Herbert Morrison: Portrait of a Politician (2001), p. 184
“Every serious novel is, beyond its immediate thematic preoccupations, a discussion of the craft, a conquest of the form, a conflict with its difficulties and a pursuit of its felicities and beauty.”
Ralph Ellison (1914–1994) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Society, Morality and the Novel" (1957), in The Collected Essays, ed. John F. Callahan (New York: Modern Library, 1995), p. 699.
“So quiet and subtle is the beauty of December that escapes the notice of many people their whole lives through.. Colour gives way to form. every branch distinct, in a delicate tracery against the sky.. new vistas obscured all Summer by leafage, now open up.”
Flora Thompson (1876–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: December Chapter The Peverel Papers - A yearbook of the countryside ed Julian Shuckburgh Century Hutchinson 1986
“Mentally speaking, it sucks, man. Who wants to prepare their whole life and have it all taken away by some guy who just made a bad pass? But that's the beauty of the sport as well. Anything can happen.”
Apolo Anton Ohno (born 1982) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gordon, Devin (2006-01-23), "APOLO ANTON OHNO: SPEED SKATING". Newsweek. 147 (4):48
“I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want—an adorable pancreas?”
Jean Kerr (1922–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tourism is an economic activity that leverages on the beauty that our Creator willed to us. It will also encourage development of the far reaches of our country. And it would complement efforts to protect the environment.”
Francis Escudero (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Winning doesn't necessarily mean you're right. History will be a better judge of that. But that's the beauty of democracy — you believe what you believe, I believe what I believe, and as long as we're not hurting each other, that's fine. Placing a value judgement on a person's beliefs has no place in a democracy.”
Francis Escudero (born 1969) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chiz the whiz takes aim at the Upper House",The Philippine Daily Inquirer, 29 May 2005, p. Q1.
“Filipinos don't wallow in what is miserable and ugly. They recycle the bad into things of beauty.”
Imelda Marcos (born 1929) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Homage to Imelda's shoes" at BBC News (16 February 2001)).
“Our neighborhood - this solar system, the cosmos, actually - is so much more vast and amazing than the paltry headlines, insanity, and politics crammed at us daily as so-called news. The beauty of the hood and discoveries that await us are deserving of our attention and mandatory to our survival as a species.”
Vanna Bonta (1958–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pythagoras was the first person to call the universe Cosmos, describing it a kosmos. The Greek word means an equal presence of order and beauty.”
Vanna Bonta (1958–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As intelligent life that can impact a comet with total precision, send missions to Mars, and create beauty, art, dance, literature, and music, the greatest sex organ is the mind and my guess is there are orgasms awaiting us like none we have known before, provided we get there.”
Vanna Bonta (1958–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The beauty you see in me is a reflection of you.”
Vanna Bonta (1958–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only person who could make me stop singing is the one who made me sing: God, the beauty up there!”
Simone (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think there's too much emphasis on beauty. I find it so limiting. I think just be yourself. Be who you are.”
Molly Shannon (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty is that quality which, next to money, is generally the most attractive to the worst kinds of men; and, therefore, it is likely to entail a great deal of trouble on the possessor.”
Anne Brontë (1820–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A burst of passion is a fine rousing thing upon occasion, Helen, and a flood of tears is marvellously affecting, but, when indulged too often, they are both deuced plaguy things for spoiling one's beauty and tiring out one's friends.”
Anne Brontë (1820–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But tir'd at length poor Beauty slept, And while she rested, wearied quite, Indifference to the dear lamp crept, And quench'd its warm, and splendid light.”
Eliza Acton (1799–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My works are not just rhetorical, except in the sense that all art is rhetorical. I believe in beauty.”
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source