“She is a peacock in everything but beauty!”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover
“She is a peacock in everything but beauty!”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“The dance of the peacock attracts not only the peahen but also the human.”
Subhash Kak (1947) Indian computer scientist
The Loom of Time (2016)
“I felt afraid.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.”
Wallace Stevens book Harmonium
"Domination of Black"
Harmonium (1923)
Context: I saw how the night came,
Came striding like the color of the heavy hemlocks.
I felt afraid.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.
“Only you could love such a vile, selfish peacock, Evie.”
Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer
Source: Devil in Winter
“Go you and, with such glorious hues,
Live with proud peacocks in green parks.”
William Henry Davies (1871–1940) British poet
The Kingfisher
John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic
Also misattributed to John Steinbeck.
Source: The Works of John Ruskin: The stones of Venice, v. 1-3
“The sight of a feather in a peacock’s tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!”
Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"
Letter https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-2743.xml to Asa Gray, 3 April 1860 <br class="br">Other letters, notebooks, journal articles, recollected statements
Dave Eggers (1970) memoirist, novelist, short story writer, editor, publisher
You Shall Know Our Velocity! (2002)
“Peacocks have the bright feathers. Fish have the long tails. Women have the mall.”
Janette Rallison (1966) American writer
Source: My Double Life
John Ruskin book The Stones of Venice
Volume I, chapter II, section 17.
The Stones of Venice (1853)
Variant: Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless.
Context: You were made for enjoyment, and the world was filled with things which you will enjoy, unless you are too proud to be pleased with them, or too grasping to care for what you cannot turn to other account than mere delight. Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless: peacocks and lilies, for instance.