“Never indeed will there be or appear an orator so gifted that he could describe such surpassing beauty as shines forth on the countenance of the gods.”
The Caesars (c. 361)
Context: As for the beauty of the gods, not even Hermes tried to describe it in his tale; he said that it transcended description, and must be comprehended by the eye of the mind; for in words it was hard to portray and impossible to convey to mortal ears. Never indeed will there be or appear an orator so gifted that he could describe such surpassing beauty as shines forth on the countenance of the gods.
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Julian (emperor) 97
Roman Emperor, philosopher and writer 331–363Related quotes
“God never made an ugly landscape. All that the sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild.”
pages 16-21 (at page 16)
1890s, The National Parks and Forest Reservations, 1895
XV, 22
The City of God (early 400s)
Rev. William Henry Foote, in "Cornstalk, the Shawanee Chief" in The Southern Literary Messenger Vol. 16, Issue 9, (September 1850) pp. 533-540
Context: All savages seem to us alike as the trees of the distant forest. Here and there one unites in his own person, all the excellencies, and becomes the favourable representative of the whole, the image of savage greatness, the one grand character in which all others are lost to history or observation. Cornstalk possessed all the elements of savage greatness, oratory, statesmanship and heroism, with beauty of person and strength of frame. In appearance he was majestic, in manners easy and winning. Of his oratory, Colonel Benjamin Wilson, Senr., an officer in Dunmore's army, in 1774, having heard the grand speech to Dunmore in Camp Charlotte, says — "I have heard the first orators in Virginia, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, but never have I heard one whose powers of delivery surpassed those of Cornstalk on that occasion." Of his statesmanship and bravery there is ample evidence both in the fact that he was chosen head of the Confederacy, and in the manner he conducted the war of 1774, and particularly by his directions of the battle at Point Pleasant.
“(James) Anderson has a gift from the gods: he could swing an orange.”
The Guardian, 2008 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/2302798/Job-well-done-England-against-New-Zealand.-But-the-really-hard-work-starts-now.html
Book III, line 167, p. 41
The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets (1611)
“Of surpassing beauty and in the bloom of youth.”
Act I, scene 1, line 45 (72).
Andria (The Lady of Andros)