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Beauty

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“She is the violet, The daisy delectable, The columbine commendable, The jelofer amiable; For this most goodly flower, This blossom of fresh colour, So Jupiter me succour, She flourisheth new and new In beauty and virtue.”
John Skelton (1460–1529) said by 1529 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The beauty and mystery of this world only emerges through affection, attention, interest and compassion; if you want to live in that paradise where happy mares and stallions live, open your eyes wide and actually see this world by attending to its colors, details and irony.”
Orhan Pamuk (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty and ingenuity beat perfection hands down, every time. (p179)”
Nalo Hopkinson (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I enjoy exploring my connection to Caribbean vernacular – or, any vernacular. I love how people actually speak. There is an art and a poetry and a beauty and a logic to it that, to me, is undeniable. There’s no such thing as bad language, in my mind. (2024)”
Nalo Hopkinson (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty itself doth of itself persuade The eyes of men without an orator.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) first seen 1594 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Rape of Lucrece (1594).
“Prostrate on earth the bleeding warrior lies, And Isr'el's beauty on the mountains dies. How are the mighty fallen! Hush'd be my sorrow, gently fall my tears, Lest my sad tale should reach the alien's ears: Bid Fame be dumb, and tremble to proclaim In heathen Gath, or Ascalon, our shame Lest proud Philistia, lest our haughty foe, With impious scorn insult our solemn woe.”
William Somervile (1675–1742) said by 1742 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Despite the awfulness of what was happening, the backdrop was a scene of beauty: a clear sky, a bright moon, clearly visible stars, flat undisturbed water, and an immense liner blazing with pinholes of light.”
Steve Turner (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This object of great beauty—even in its stricken condition—went down with a terrifying roar…a sound that survivors later described as the most bloodcurdling they had ever heard.”
Steve Turner (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Skirting the rocks at the forest edge With a running flame from ledge to ledge, Or swaying deeper in shadowy glooms, A smoldering fire in her dusky blooms; Bronzed and molded by wind and sun, Maddening, gladdening every one With a gypsy beauty full and fine,— A health to the crimson columbine!”
Elaine Goodale Eastman (1863–1953) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Columbine; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 124.
“With careless joy we thread the woodland ways And reach her broad domain. Thro' sense of strength and beauty, free as air. We feel our savage kin, And thus alone with conscious meaning wear The Indian's moccasin!”
Elaine Goodale Eastman (1863–1953) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Moccasin Flower, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 519.
“Most American cities shop to their best advantage when seen from a height or from a distance, at a point where the ugliness of the buildings dissolves into the beauty of an abstraction.”
Lewis H. Lapham (1935–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(Whilst having his makeup done) This is the makeup process. I’ve been here since half past five this morning. So would you say you’re bringing out a beauty that’s already there? How does it work? How do we hide the bald patch?”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No doubt, the poetry, overjoyed by swallowing the beverage of passionate thoughts, delights the mind. But she does not realize the sorrows and troubles of the poor. Forget depicting the beauty of passions and present your poetry as a necklace of thought gems to swell the soul.”
Manmohan Acharya (1967–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is important to appreciate beauty, even when it is evil.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Truth has been relegated to subjectivity; beauty has been subjugated to the beholder; and as millions are idiotized night after night, a global commune has been constructed with the arts enjoying a totalitarian rule.”
Ravi Zacharias (1946–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Love is a command, not just a feeling. Somehow, in the romantic world of music and theater we have made love to be what it is not. We have so mixed it with beauty and charm and sensuality and contact that we have robbed it of its higher call of cherishing and nurturing.”
Ravi Zacharias (1946–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let’s stop kidding ourselves — there are too many instances of Christians worshiping sublimely every Sunday, but never making an impact beyond the congregation, never experiencing the powerful beauty of communitas, and never going deeper in discipleship.”
Alan Hirsch (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All beauty is sad. For it fades.”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'A man should not risk his life for beauty alone, Kiall, for that fades. You might as well risk it for a rose. Think on it.'”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Joan's beauty was more than the sum of its parts. She was soft and feminine, and wore silky clinging clothes and small bandannas tied close to her head. In her reserve, in her achievement of a personal style, she reminded Edie of Garbo.”
Joan Vollmer (1923–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here I find a puzzle of great beauty: Canada works well in practice, but just doesn't work out in theory.”
B. W. Powe (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He inspires self-trust. He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens him. He will have no disciples. A noble artist, he has visions of excellence and revelations of beauty, which he has neither impersonated in character, nor embodied in words. His life and teachings are but studies for yet nobler ideals.”
Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Among the mouldering bones there was the head of a flaxen haired girl. One side of her face was well preserved, almost mummified. She must have been a beauty. But the other side of her face was all bone and a horrifying sight, not the sort of thing one likes to think about after.”
Christopher Vokes (1904–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every theory is true in some discipline. The beauty of this is that it carries its own confirmation.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Glory like Their Star", The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 2001; reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Starwater Strains (2005)
“In our land the educated poor, who at the most can only cycle or take short railway journeys into the country from an adjoining town, are fast losing their rightful heritage — the beauty of the country-side, which is rapidly disappearing with very little benefit to anyone. Apparently nobody but a few timid adherents of the Archeological Society cares a straw.”
Harry Johnston (1858–1927) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Gleanings" by Mary V. Fuller, in The American City, Vol. I, No. 3 (November 1903)
“It would be foolish to describe the logistics hub as merely ugly, for it has the horrifying, soulless, immaculate beauty characteristic of many of the workplaces of the modern world.”
Alain de Botton (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now my sister's daughter, Elizabeth May Is going to get married next Sunday, they say Now what will I buy her? She's such a nice girl. I think a piano will do very well. I saw one today, 'twas a beauty I found. Only ninety-five guineas. I'll have it sent round.”
Stanley Holloway (1890–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These are areas of unparalleled natural beauty to be handed to our children undisturbed. We are merely custodians. You would not build a toll plaza and an administration block in the Grand Canyon or next to the Victoria Falls or within any other World Heritage Site.”
Lewis Pugh (born 1969) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 24 February 2012, Cape Argus (p5), in response to the building of a toll plaza on Chapman’s Peak, South Africa.
“The modern poet is above all things honest. He does not write for fame nor for money. He merely writes to vent his own spleen, his own bitterness. His own sense of disparity between the ugliness of the world that is and the beauty of the world that might be.”
Herbert Read (1893–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The work of art … is an instrument for tilling the human psyche, that it may continue to yield a harvest of vital beauty.”
Herbert Read (1893–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We cannot credit our enjoyment of a flower or of the atmosphere of a room to an autonomous esthetic instinct. Man’s esthetic responsiveness relates in its prehistory to various forms of idolatry; his belief in the goodness or sacredness of a thing precedes his enjoyment of its beauty. The applies no less to such concepts as freedom and humanity.”
Max Horkheimer (1895–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Greater than the temptations of beauty are those of method.”
James Richardson (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whitman’s masterpiece, his whole vision, is exactly about this: life as a quest for truth, love, beauty, goodness, and freedom; life as the art of becoming human through the cultivation of the human soul.”
Rob Riemen (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Under the dominion of the priests our earth became the ascetic planet; a squalid den careering through space, peopled by discontented and arrogant creatures, who were disgusted with life, abhorred their globe as a vale of tears, and who in their envy and hatred of beauty and joy did themselves as much harm as possible.”
Georg Brandes (1842–1927) said by 1927 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Good free verse is not at all easy to write, for there is no repetitive beat to lull the reader's critical faculty, much pattern and discipline is to be found in it, though the pattern of sounds and choice of exact words, gives it its beauty.”
Marjorie Boulton (1924–2017) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Anatomy of Poetry (1953)
“I am not a perfectionist at all. I love failure. I love mistakes. I love the bizarre. I love characters. I love missing teeth. I love beauty because your eyes are off-center. And how can you notice that in the buzz of the city? So I like the emptiness.”
Josh Homme (born 1973) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Jonathan Horsley, "Queens of the Stone Age: Josh Homme Q&A", Decibel Magazine (July 22nd, 2011).
“If I were an animal, I would be a fish or a bird. It's the peace and beauty of ocean, the silent language of it. It seems like a womb, protective. The sky too. I love all colors, but blue mainly, because it's transparent like the water and the sky.”
Nastassja Kinski (born 1961) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Denise Worrell (1989), Icons: Intimate Portraits.
“Beauty is the biggest enemy of attitude”
Siddharth Katragadda (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This explains the instant satisfaction and growing reward which comes to every man who aspires to a higher life, who covets wisdom, who pursues beauty, who idealizes and worships his ideals.”
John William Lloyd (1857–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This book is about the melancholic direction, which I call the "bittersweet": a tendency to states of longing, poignancy, and sorrow; an acute awareness of passing time; and a curiously piercing joy at the beauty of the world.”
Susan Cain (born 1968) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bittersweet Introduction at p. xxii (April 5, 2022)
“It's not that pain equals art. It's that creativity has the power to look pain in the eye, and to decide to turn it into something better. ... The quest to transform pain into beauty is one of the great catalysts of artistic expression.”
Susan Cain (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(T)he bittersweet tradition spans centuries—it spans continents. And it teaches us that we are creatures who are born to transform pain into beauty. It also teaches us that our feelings of bittersweetness are some of the greatest gateways that we have to states of creativity and connection and love.”
Susan Cain (born 1968) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Griscom, Rufus (interviewer). "Susan Cain on the Beauty of Sorrow and Longing (interview)". NextBigIdeaClub.com. April 7, 2022.
“One can see clearly some ambivalence in Dirac's attitudes... On the one hand, he has repeated many, many times his conviction that beauty in the fundamental equations of physics has priority... On the other hand... we see Dirac deeply involved with approximate calculations whose only purpose was to obtain an answer which the experimenters could rely upon.”
Richard Dalitz (1925–2006) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: R. H. Dalitz, Another side to Paul Dirac, in Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (Cambridge University, Cambridge, 1987) Chapter 10.
“But Joenes then made a speech which was a beauty, and I cannot recall it word for word, but the idea was that laws are made by man and thus must partake of the evil nature of man, and that true morality lies in following the true dictates of the illuminated soul. “A Commie, huh?” said the lead cop.”
Robert Sheckley (1928–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is apotheosis; often, the complaint of beauty.”
Dejan Stojanovic (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is something perfect to be found in the imperfect: the law keeps balance through the juxtaposition of beauty, which gains perfection through nurtured imperfection.”
Dejan Stojanovic (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Busy with the ugliness of the expensive success we forget the easiness of free beauty lying sad right around the corner, only an instant removed, unnoticed and squandered.”
Dejan Stojanovic (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How I regret not having told César Franck of my profound admiration for him and his music. After playing he Sonata for violin for the first time, I nearly wept over certain phrases. The beauty of it overwhelmed me.”
Pierre Monteux (1875–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Monteux, Doris G (1965). It's All in the Music: The Life and Work of Pierre Monteux. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. OCLC 604146, p. 196
“To the degree that a man possesses a vivid ideal of the good life, submerges himself in the sea of human misery and endeavors to alleviate suffering, kindles imagination in hours of silence and by visions of beauty, and follows the noblest personality into the presence of a loving, suffering Father—to the extent that he lives meaningfully, he will be convinced of sin and cry aloud for deliverance.”
Kirby Page (1890–1957) first seen 1932 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Penitence and Social Progress" World Tomorrow 15 (May, 1932)
“Seduction is a game of psychology, not beauty, and it is within the grasp of any person to become a master at the game. All that is required is that you look at the world.”
Robert Greene (American author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source