Quotes about beauty and appearance

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Joanne Harris photo
Jesus photo

“Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

Jesus (-7–30 BC) Jewish preacher and religious leader, central figure of Christianity

NASB, John 7:24
Variant translation: Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment. (NIV)
Variants of major statements

Aldo Leopold photo

“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

Source: A Sand County Almanac, 1949, "The Land Ethic", p. 224-225.
Source: A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There
Context: Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.

James Watt photo

“It now appeared that the cylinder of the model, being of brass, would conduct heat much better than the cast-iron cylinders of larger engines,”

James Watt (1736–1819) British engineer

"Notes on Professor Robison's Dissertation on Steam-engines" (1769)
Context: In the winter of 1763-4, having occasion to repair a model of Newcomen's engine belonging to the Natural Philosophy class of the University of Glasgow, my mind was again directed to it. At that period my knowledge was derived principally from Desaguliers, and partly from Belidor. I set about repairing it as a mere mechanician; and when that was done, and it was set to work, I was surprised to find that its boiler could not supply it with steam, though apparently quite large enough... By blowing the fire it was made to take a few strokes, but required an enormous quantity of injection water, though it was very lightly loaded by the column of water in the pump. It soon occurred that this was caused by the little cylinder exposing a greater surface to condense the steam, than the cylinders of larger engines did in proportion to their respective contents. It was found that by shortening the column of water in the pump, the boiler could supply the cylinder with steam, and that the engine would work regularly with a moderate quantity of injection. It now appeared that the cylinder of the model, being of brass, would conduct heat much better than the cast-iron cylinders of larger engines, (generally covered on the inside with a stony crust), and that considerable advantage could be gained by making the cylinders of some substance that would receive and give out heat slowly. Of these, wood seemed to be the most likely, provided it should prove sufficiently durable. A small engine was, therefore, constructed... made of wood, soaked in linseed oil, and baked to dryness. With this engine many experiments were made; but it was soon found that the wooden cylinder was not likely to prove durable, and that the steam condensed in filling it still exceeded the proportion of that required for large engines, according to the statements of Desaguliers. It was also found that all attempts to produce a better exhaustion by throwing in more injection, caused a disproportionate waste of steam. On reflection, the cause of this seemed to be the boiling of water in vacuo at low heats, a discovery lately made by Dr. Cullen and some other philosophers... and consequently at greater heats, the water in the cylinder would, produce a steam which would in part resist the pressure of the atmosphere.

Khalil Gibran photo
William Thomson photo

“The beauty and clearness of the dynamical theory, which asserts heat and light to be modes of motion, is at present obscured by two clouds.”

William Thomson (1824–1907) British physicist and engineer

From a 1900, April 27, , Sixth Series, 2, 1–40 (1901).
Thermodynamics quotes
Context: The beauty and clearness of the dynamical theory, which asserts heat and light to be modes of motion, is at present obscured by two clouds. I. The first came into existence with the undulatory theory of light, and was dealt with by Fresnel and Dr. Thomas Young; it involved the question, how could the earth move through an elastic solid, such as essentially is the luminiferous ether? II. The second is the Maxwell–Boltzmann doctrine regarding the partition of energy.

Erving Goffman photo
Isaac Newton photo

“We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.”

"Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy" : Rule I
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)

Piet Mondrian photo
Sadhguru photo
Carlo Goldoni photo

“The blush is beautiful, but it is sometimes inconvenient.”

Carlo Goldoni (1707–1794) Italian playwright and librettist

Bello è il rossore, ma è incommodo qualche volta.
I. 3.
Pamela (c. 1750)

Jacques Dubochet photo

“[…] knowledge is our greatest wealth and the love of others the most beautiful human value.”

Jacques Dubochet (1942) Nobel prize winning Swiss chemist

French: [...] la connaissance est notre plus grande richesse et l'amour d'autrui la plus belle valeur humaine.
Source, in French: Jacques Dubochet, Parcours, Éditions Rosso, 2018, page 9 (ISBN 9782940560097).

Olaudah Equiano photo
Pablo Neruda photo

“The moon lives in the lining of your skin.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Debajo de tu piel vive la luna.
Oda a la Bella Desnuda (Ode to a Beautiful Nude), from Nuevas Odas Elementales (1956), trans. Nathaniel Tarn in Selected Poems by Pablo Neruda [Houghton Mifflin, 1990, ISBN 0-395-54418-1] (p. 349).