Quotes about beauty

A collection of quotes on the topic of women, beauty, likeness, thing.

Best quotes about beauty

“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

As quoted in Path for Greatness : Spiritualty at Work (2000) by Linda J. Ferguson, p. 51

“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.”

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer

“Things are beautiful if you love them.”

Jean Anouilh (1910–1987) French playwright

“It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye.”

William Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost

Source: Love's Labour's Lost

“We had a beautiful dream and that was all.”

Marie Antoinette (1755–1793) last Queen of France prior to the French Revolution

The interest of my son is the only guide I have, and whatever happiness I could achieve by being free of this place I cannot consent to separate my self from him. I could not have any pleasure in the world if I abandoned my children.I do not even have any regrets.
Marie Antoinette to the Chevalier Jarjayes on his persuading her to escape alone from the Tower; Lettres, II. p. 433; also quoted in Marie Antoinette: The Journey (2001) by Antonia Fraser, ISBN 0307277747.

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

“Strangeness is a necessary ingredient in beauty.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

“Life is a beautiful, magnificent thing, even to a jellyfish.”

Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker

Calvero's answer to Terry's question: "What is there to fight for?" in Limelight (1952)
Context: Life is a beautiful, magnificent thing, even to a jellyfish. … The trouble is you won't fight. You've given up. But there's something just as inevitable as death. And that's life. Think of the power of the universe — turning the Earth, growing the trees. That's the same power within you — if you'll only have the courage and the will to use it.

Abraham Lincoln quote: “Life is hard but so very beautiful”

Louisa May Alcott quote: “The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.”

+ 2 quotes

Diana Vreeland quote: “You don't have to be born beautiful to be wildly attractive.”

T.S. Eliot quote: “To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life.”

Quotes about beauty

“Mexico is a beautiful country in its tremendous contradictions.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: Revista Momento ahora o nunca, n°139 (2019)

Country

“We know well that there is poverty in Latin America, beyond the beauty of our nations.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: https://www.peruinforma.com/entrevista-cultural-al-escritor-chileno-jose-baroja/

“Women are beautiful in the light of the day, but are even more so in the shadows of the night.”

Andrzej Majewski (1966) Polish writer and photographer

Aphorisms. Magnum in Parvo (2000)

Women, Light, Night

“Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around. You tell them things that you’ve never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more. You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never come true, goals that were never achieved and the many disappointments life has thrown at you. When something wonderful happens, you can’t wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement. They are not embarrassed to cry with you when you are hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of yourself. Never do they hurt your feelings or make you feel like you are not good enough, but rather they build you up and show you the things about yourself that make you special and even beautiful. There is never any pressure, jealousy or competition but only a quiet calmness when they are around. You can be yourself and not worry about what they will think of you because they love you for who you are. The things that seem insignificant to most people such as a note, song or walk become invaluable treasures kept safe in your heart to cherish forever. Memories of your childhood come back and are so clear and vivid it’s like being young again. Colours seem brighter and more brilliant. Laughter seems part of daily life where before it was infrequent or didn’t exist at all. A phone call or two during the day helps to get you through a long day’s work and always brings a smile to your face. In their presence, there’s no need for continuous conversation, but you find you’re quite content in just having them nearby. Things that never interested you before become fascinating because you know they are important to this person who is so special to you. You think of this person on every occasion and in everything you do. Simple things bring them to mind like a pale blue sky, gentle wind or even a storm cloud on the horizon. You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure that’s so real it scares you. You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.”

Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician

love, Love, Life, People

“This life is what you make it. No matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up, you'll never find your soulmate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Heartbreaking, Inspirational, love, Life

“Sensitiveness to beauty of the world continues, and efforts to preserve it were also made in the past.”

Marek Żukow-Karczewski (1961) Polish historian, journalist and opinion journalist

Enchanted by beauty (three forgotten relations), "Aura" 1, 1998-01, p. 17-19. http://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.agro-article-d2f0773c-592e-4250-8f73-558234a9140e?q=3c417fdf-4051-4e84-83b2-9eb4fc33b1e0$1&qt=IN_PAGE

World, Effort, Past

“Stars," she whispered. "I can see the stars again, my lady."
A tear trickled down Artemis's cheek. "Yes, my brave one. They are beautiful tonight."
Stars," Zoe repeated. Her eyes fixed on the night sky. And she did not move again.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Star, Tear, Night

“If you have ever seen the play Peter Pan you will remember how the pirate chief was always making his dying speech because he was afraid that possibly when the time came for him to die he might not have time to get it off his chest. It is much the same with me, and so, although I am not at this moment dying, I shall be doing so one of these days and I want to send you a parting word of goodbye.

Remember, it is the last you will ever hear from me, so think it over.

I have had a most happy life and I want each one of you to have as happy a life too.

I believe that God put us in this jolly world to be happy and enjoy life. Happiness doesn't come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy, so that you can be useful and so can enjoy life when you are a man.

Nature study will show you how full of beautiful and wonderful things God has made the world for you to enjoy. Be contented with what you have got and make the best of it. Look on the bright side of things instead of the gloomy one.

But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn come to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. "Be Prepared" in this way, to live happy and to die happy - stick to your Scout promise always - even after you have ceased to be a boy - and God help you do it.”

Robert Baden-Powell (1857–1941) lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder and Chief Scout of the Scout Movement

Life, God, People, World

“My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece”

Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter

“Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.”

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer

from poem Go to the Limits of Your Longing.

Appears in movie Jojo Rabbit.
Variant: Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Motivational, Beauty, Success, Deep

“Mimì never forgets to see the beauty in life.”

Megan Marie Hart (1983) American opera singer

Original: (de) Mimi vergisst nie, die Schönheit im Leben zu sehen, und ist nicht verbittert.
Variant: Mimi never forgets to see the beauty in life and is not bitter.
Source: https://www.frizzmag.de/kultur-freizeit/kultur--buehne/La-Boheme-neue-Version-Staatstheater/
Context: Mimì is a character in Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. Although she is terminally ill, she enjoys life.

Forgetting, Life

“Keep smiling, because life is a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Heartbreaking, Inspirational, love, Motivational

“Percy, let me go" she croaked. "You can't pull me up."
His face was white with effort. She could see in his eyes that he knew it was hopeless.
"Never," he said. He looked up at Nico, fifteen feet above.
"The other side, Nico! We'll see you there. Understand?"
Nico's eyes widened. "But-"
"Lead them!" Percy shouted. "Promise me!"
"I-I will."
Below them, the voice laughed in the darkness. Sacrifices. Beautiful sacrifices to wake the goddess.
Percy tightened his grip on Annabeth's wrist. His face was gaunt, scraped and bloody, his hair dusted with cobwebs, but when he locked eyes with her, she thought he had never looked more handsome.
"We're staying together," he promised. "You're not getting away from me. Never again."
Only then did she understand what would happen. A one-way trip. A very hard fall.
"As long as we're together," she said.
She heard Nico and Hazel still screaming for help. She saw sunlight far, far above- maybe the last sunlight she would ever see.
Then Percy let go of his ledge, and together, holding hands, he and Annabeth fell into the endless darkness.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Way, Understanding, Effort, Help

“Everyone should consider his
body as a priceless gift from
one whom he loves above all, a
marvelous work of art, of
indescribable beauty, and
mystery beyond human conception, and so delicate that
a word, a breath, a look, nay, a
thought may injure it.”

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian American inventor

Love, Art

“The most beautiful moments in life are moments when you are expressing your joy, not when you are seeking it.”

Sadhguru (1957) Yogi, mystic, visionary and humanitarian

Life, Joy

“There is no spectacle on earth more appealing than that of a beautiful woman in the act of cooking dinner for someone she loves.”

Thomas Wolfe (1900–1938) American writer

For Wife, Love, Cooking

“This next song is only dedicated to beautiful people here tonight. That means all of you. Thank you for coming along… and making this a great occasion.”

Freddie Mercury (1946–1991) British singer, songwriter and record producer

Source: Live Aid, 1985/07/13 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A22oy8dFjqc?t=12m5s

People

“No spring, nor summer beauty hath such grace,
As I have seen in one autumnal face.”

John Donne (1572–1631) English poet

No. 9, The Autumnal, line 1
Elegies
Source: The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose

Beauty, Spring, Autumn, Summer

“When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. For the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle and yet most of the audience still sleeps.”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

Beauty, Sad, Sadness, Sleep

“Jews hate nature and the natural order, because it's pure and beautiful, and also because it's bigger and stronger than they are, and they feel that they can not fully control it. Nature's beauty and harmony stands in stark contrast to their squalidness and ugliness, and that makes them hate it all the more. Jews are destroyers. They are anti-humans.”

Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) American chess prodigy, chess player, and chess writer

Radio Interview, February 19 2005 http://www.geocities.jp/bobbby_b/mp3/F_31_2.MP3I studied that first Karpov-Kasparov match for a year and a half before I cracked it, what they were doing, and discovered that it was all prearranged move-by-move. There's no doubt of it in my mind.Now chess is completely dead. It is all just memorization and prearrangement. It’s a terrible game now. Very uncreative. <br class="br">2000s

Hate, Feeling, Nature

“The beauty of mathematics only shows itself to more patient followers.”

Maryam Mirzakhani (1977–2017) Iranian mathematician

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/aug/13/interview-maryam-mirzakhani-fields-medal-winner-mathematician

Mathematics

“It’s always wonderful to get to know women, with the mystery and the joy and the depth. If you can make a woman laugh, you’re seeing the most beautiful thing on God’s Earth.”

Keanu Reeves (1964) Canadian actor, director, producer and musician

God, Joy, Making love, Women

“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Beauty, Heart Touching

“Nationalism is so beautiful for nationalists. At the same time, you are really opposed to the unification of the world.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Time, World

“I have no advice for anybody; except to, you know, be awake enough to see where you are at any given time, and how that is beautiful, and has poetry inside. Even places you hate.”

Jeff Buckley (1966–1997) American singer, guitarist and songwriter

Hate, Time

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian lawyer, statesman, and writer, first Prime Minister of India

As quoted in Building A Life Of Value : Timeless Wisdom to Inspire and Empower Us (2005) by Jason A. Merchey, p. 74

Beauty, World

“I have loved books all my life. There is nothing more beautiful in our material world than the book.”

Patti Smith (1946) American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist

Love, Life, Books, World

“Music is the heart of life." She speaks love; "without it, there is no possible good and with it everything is beautiful.”

Franz Liszt (1811–1886) Hungarian romantic composer and virtuoso pianist

Love, Life, Music, Heart

“Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed. You will never be more lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.”

Homér Iliad

Variant: Any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.
Source: The Iliad

“Anything forced is not beautiful”

Xenophon (-430–-354 BC) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Source: The Art of Horsemanship

“I cry a lot-I don't know why, but it just helps me. I cry over bad and good stuff-sometimes sadness can be beautiful”

Amy Lee (1981) American singer-songwriter and pianist

Sadness, Help, Cry

“Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

Life, Death, Lie, Peace

“Life is hard but so very beautiful”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Life

“We must not forget that when radium was discovered no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. The work was one of pure science. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it. It must be done for itself, for the beauty of science, and then there is always the chance that a scientific discovery may become like the radium a benefit for humanity.”

Marie Curie (1867–1934) French-Polish physicist and chemist

Lecture at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York (14 May 1921)

Science, Chance, Forgetting

“Time is a vindictive bandit to steal the beauty of our former selves.”

Raphael (1483–1520) Italian painter and architect

Quote from: 1001 quotations to inspire you before you die; Quintessence Editions Ltd., 2016, ISBN 978-1-84403-895-4

Time

“Isn't it bewildering … that everything is so beautiful, despite all the horrors that exist?”

Sophie Scholl (1921–1943) White Rose member

As quoted in O<sub>2</sub> : Breathing New Life Into Faith (2008) by Richard Dahlstrom, p. 223; this source is disputed as it does not cite an original document for the quote.
Disputed
Context: Isn't it bewildering … that everything is so beautiful, despite all the horrors that exist? Lately I've noticed something grand and mysterious peering into my sheer joy in all that is lovely — the sense of a Creator whom innocent creation worships with its beauty. Only man can be hateful or ugly, because he possesses a free will to cut himself off from the chorus of praise. It often seems that he will succeed in drowning out this chorus with his cannon thunder, curses, and blasphemy. But it has become clear to me this spring that he cannot. And so I must try to throw myself on the side of the victor.

“The mind might become forgetful of great deeds, but the soul does not forget anything that it considers to be beautiful and good.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Soul, Forgetting

“I love borders. August is the border between summer and autumn; it is the most beautiful month I know.

Twilight is the border between day and night, and the shore is the border between sea and land. The border is longing: when both have fallen in love but still haven't said anything. The border is to be on the way. It is the way that is the most important thing.”

Tove Jansson (1914–2001) Finnish children's writer and illustrator

Love, Way, Autumn, Summer

“Yesterday I fell in love,
today feels like my funeral,
I just got hit by a bus,
shouldn't have been so beautiful,
dont know why I gave my heart,
gave my trust,
gave everything.”

Chris Brown (1989) American singer, songwriter, dancer, actor , and painter

Love, Feeling, Heart

“To love someone is to show to them their beauty, their worth and their importance.”

Jean Vanier (1928–2019) Canadian humanitarian

Love

“Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is the best…”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

"Packard Goose"
"Joe's Garage Acts II & III" (1979)
Variant: Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is the best.

Love, Wisdom, Truth, Music

“She's kind of a walking poem, she's this perfect beauty… but at the same time very deep, very smart.”

Johnny Depp (1963) American actor, film producer, and musician

Time, Perfection

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

Variant: The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.
Variant: The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched... but are felt in the heart.

Deep, Inspirational, Beauty, love

“Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful.”

Sophia Loren (1934) Italian actress

As quoted in The Subtlety of Emotions (2001) by Aaron Ben-Ze'ev, p. 204.

Beauty, For Her

“It's dangerous & humiliating. The whalers killed whales while green peace watched. Now, you don't walk by a child that is being abused, you don't walk by a kitten that is being kicked to death and do nothing. So I find it abhorrent to sit there and watch a whale being slaughtered and do nothing but "bear witness" as they call it. I think it was best illustrated a few years ago, the contradictions that we have, when a ranger in Zimbabwe shot and killed a poacher that was about to kill a black rhinoceros and uh human rights groups around the world said "how dare you? Take a human life to protect an animal". I think the rangers' answer to that really illustrated a hypocrisy. He said "Ya know, if I lived in, If I was a police officer in Herrari and a man ran out of Bark Place Bank with a bag of money and I shot him in the head in front of everybody and killed him, you'd pin a medal on me and call me a national hero. Why is that bag of paper more valued than the future heritage of this nation?" This is our values. WE fight, WE kill, WE risk our lives for things we believe in… Imagine going into Mecca, walk up to the black stone and spit on it. See how far you get. You’re not going to get very far. You’re going to be torn to pieces. Walk into Jerusalem, walk up to that wailing wall with a pick axe, start whacking away. See how far you’re going to get, somebody is going to put a bullet in your back. And everybody will say you deserved it. Walk into the Vatican with a hammer, start smashing a few statues. See how far you’re going to get. Not very far. But each and every day, ya know, people go into the most beautiful, most profoundly sacred cathedrals of this planet, the rainforests of the Amazonia, the redwood forests of California, the rainforests of Indonesia, and totally desecrate & destroy these cathedrals with bulldozers, chainsaws and how do we respond to that? Oh, we write a few letters and protest; we dress up in animal costumes with picket signs and jump up and down; but if the rainforests of Amazonia and redwoods of California, were as, or had as much value to us as a chunk of old meteorite in Mecca, a decrepit old wall in Jerusalem or a piece of old marble in the Vatican, we would literally rip those pieces limb from limb for the act of blasphemy that we’re committing but we won’t do that because nature is an abstraction, wilderness is an abstraction. It has no value in our anthropocentric world where the only thing we value is that which is created by humans.”

Paul Watson (1950) Canadian environmental activist

Life, Death, Money, People

“Do not allow your dreams of a beautiful world to lure you away from the claims of men who suffer here and now. Our fellow men have a claim to our help; no generation must be sacrificed for the sake of future generations, for the sake of an ideal of happiness that may never be realised.”

Karl Popper (1902–1994) Austrian-British philosopher of science

Utopia and Violence (1947)

Men, World, Dreams, Suffering

“I have said that black has it all. White too. Their beauty is absolute. It is the perfect harmony.”

Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French fashion designer

As quoted in Chanel (1987) by Jean Leymarie
Context: Women think of all colors except the absence of color. I have said that black has it all. White too. Their beauty is absolute. It is the perfect harmony.

Perfection

“Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.”

Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Marxist revolutionary from Russia

Trotsky's Testament (1940)
Context: Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.

Life, Evil, Future

“She is the sum of nature's universe.
To her perfection all of beauty tends.”

Dante Alighieri book Vita Nuova

Source: La Vita Nuova (1293), Chapter XIV, lines 49–50 (tr. Barbara Reynolds)

Perfection

“The British, who can afford aluminium better than we can, knock together a beautiful wooden aircraft that every piano factory over there is building, and they give it a speed which they have now increased yet again. What do you make of that? There is nothing the British do not have. They have the geniuses and we have the nincompoops.”

Hermann Göring (1893–1946) German politician and military leader

This statement was attributed to Goering in at least one book on World War II, but it was removed from the English Wikipedia page on him on grounds that it was not actually verified that Goering had ever said it.
Disputed
Context: In 1940 I could at least fly as far as Glasgow in most of my aircraft, but not now! It makes me furious when I see the Mosquito. I turn green and yellow with envy. The British, who can afford aluminium better than we can, knock together a beautiful wooden aircraft that every piano factory over there is building, and they give it a speed which they have now increased yet again. What do you make of that? There is nothing the British do not have. They have the geniuses and we have the nincompoops. After the war is over I'm going to buy a British radio set – then at least I'll own something that has always worked.

Speed

“I feel like flying when I take my drone out into the desert or over the tall skyscrapers in the UAE (Dubai) to capture beautiful imagery.”

NasserTone (1994) Nasser Ali Albahrani is a director, cinematographer, photographer, producer, & YouTuber, who was born on April 3…

Vice Magazine Article (July 18, 2018)

Feeling, Flying

“If we look at the world with a love of life, the world will reveal its beauty to us.”

Daisaku Ikeda (1928) Japanese writer

World, Life, Love, Wedding

“Every day I discover
more and more
beautiful things.
It’s enough to drive one mad.
I have such a desire
to do everything,
my head is bursting with it.”

Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter

Variant: Everyday I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.

Madness

“When You've lost it all…. that's when you realize that Life is Beautiful.”

Nikki Sixx (1958) American musician

Variant: When You've lost it all.... thats when you realize that Life is Beautiful.
Source: The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star

Life

“So every day
I was surrounded by the beautiful crying forth
of the ideas of God, one of which was you.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

"So every day"
Red Bird (2008)

God, Idea, Cry

“What if you slept
And what if
In your sleep
You dreamed
And what if
In your dream
You went to heaven
And there plucked a strange and beautiful flower
And what if
When you awoke
You had that flower in you hand
Ah, what then?”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

Source: The Complete Poems

Dreams, Flowers, Sleep

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Happy, Beauty, Moving On, Thinking

“We cannot, after all, judge a biography by its length, by the number of pages in it; we must judge by the richness of the contents… Sometimes the 'unfinisheds' are among the most beautiful symphonies.”

Viktor E. Frankl book The Doctor and the Soul

Source: The Doctor and the Soul

“Horses make a landscape look beautiful.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

Horse

“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist

Variant: The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.

Beauty, Happy, Love, Life

“The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against self; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except at the price of pain”

Padre Pio (1887–1968) Italian saint, priest, stigmatist and mystic

Life, Pain, Soul, Flowers

“Live each moment completely and the future will take care of itself. Fully enjoy the wonder and beauty of each moment.”

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship

Future

“There are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

“Being human means throwing your whole life on the scales of destiny when need be, all the while rejoicing in every sunny day and every beautiful cloud.”

Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) Polish Marxist theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary

Life

“How beautiful it is and how easily it can be broken.”

Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie

Source: The Glass Menagerie

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”

Rainer Maria Rilke book Letters to a Young Poet

Source: Letters to a Young Poet

Love, Courage, Waiting, Princess

“Sexiness wears thin after awhile and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that is a treat.”

Joanne Woodward (1930) Actress, producer

“What is man’s life but love, love of self;
Man is dust, dust as his passion, dust as the beloved.Death, it is your great act of piety for man –
You take him to your house or he’d be left to himself.Death is a covenant between the lover and the beloved;
Death is a secret wedlock between being and non-being.Death harbors the hidden port of life’s ocean;
Death is helpless and a vision of beauty to itself.Death is the only witness of my life and your grace,
And O strange lord, of night and the crescent.”

Ghani Khan (1914–1996) Pakistani poet

Death, st. 8-12

Love, Life, Death, Secret

“Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem.”

Edgar Allan Poe book The Philosophy of Composition

"The Philosophy of Composition" (published 1846).

“Anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you. Dirty you so bad you couldn't like yourself anymore. And though she and others lived through and got over it, she could never let it happen to her own. The best things she was, was her children. Whites might dirty her all right, but not her best thing, her beautiful, magical best thing — the part of her that was clean.”

Toni Morrison book Beloved

Source: Beloved (1987), Ch. 26

Children, Parting

“He's probably the world's most beautiful-looking man, yet he doesn't think that he's gorgeous. And to me, he's just smelly, farty Leo.
- Kate Winslet (Vanity Fair, January 1998)”

Leonardo DiCaprio (1974) American actor and film producer

About

World, Thinking

“Charisma is the radiance produced by the interaction of male and female elements in a gifted personality. The charismatic woman has a masculine force and severity. The charismatic man has an entrancing female beauty. Both are hot and cold, glowing with presexual self-love.”

Camille Paglia (1947) American writer

Source: Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990), p. 521

Love, Personality

“O Woman, you are not merely the handiwork of God, but also of men; these are ever endowing you with beauty from their own hearts … You are one-half woman and one-half dream.”

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath

59 <br class="br"> The Gardener http://www.spiritualbee.com/love-poems-by-tagore/ (1915)

Men, God, Dreams, Heart

“The beauty you see in me is a reflection of you.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

Appears in Rewards of Passion (Sheer Poetry) (1981), "The Beauty"

Also attributed to Rumi (persian mystic and poet).
Rewards of Passion (Sheer Poetry) (1981)

For Him, For Boyfriend

“It is common opinion among us in regard to beauty and wisdom that there is an honourable and a shameful way of bestowing them. For to offer one’s beauty for money to all comers is called prostitution; but we think it virtuous to become friendly with a lover who is known to be a man of honour. So is it with wisdom. Those who offer it to all comers for money are known as sophists, prostitutors of wisdom.”

Xenophon (-430–-354 BC) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Words spoken by Socrates to Antiphon in Memorabilia, 1.6.11.

Wisdom, Money, Way, Lovers

“Cars are some of the most intoxicating, most beautiful things ever forged by mankind.”

Jeremy Clarkson (1960) English broadcaster, journalist and writer

Voice-over introduction to Forza Motorsport 5 (2013)
Context: Cars. To some, they're just transport. A convenient alternative to highly-flammable dirigibles or walking. But you- you understand that cars are far more than this. They are our history. They mark the moments by which we define decades. Cars are some of the most intoxicating, most beautiful things ever forged by mankind. They represent the glory of technology, the essence of freedom, and have been the weapons in some of our most gripping sporting battles. They grip us, they cheer us on, they hold us up as heroes. So this is about the love of all things four-wheeled and fast. This is a shrine to power, to speed, to metal made beautiful. This is where dreams are driven. Welcome to Forza.

Cars

“Why do you sow where the field is eager to destroy the fruit? Where there are medicines of sterility? Where there is murder before birth? You do not even let a harlot remain a harlot, but you make her a murderess as well. Do you see that from drunkenness comes fornication, from fornication adultery, from adultery murder? Indeed, it is something worse than murder and I do not know what to call it; for she does not kill what is formed but prevents its formation. What then? Do you contemn the gift of God, and fight with His laws? What is a curse, do you seek as though it were a blessing? Do you make the anteroom of birth the anteroom of slaughter? Do you teach the woman who is given to you for the procreation of offspring to perpetrate killing? That she may always be beautiful and lovable to her lovers, and that she may rake in more money, she does not refuse to do this, heaping fire on your head; and even if the crime is hers, you are the cause. Hence also arise idolatries. To look pretty many of these women use incantations, libations, philtres, potions, and innumerable other things. Yet after such turpitude, after murder, after idolatry, the matter still seems indifferent to many men–even to many men having wives. In this indifference of the married men there is greater evil filth; for then poisons are prepared, not against the womb of a prostitute, but against your injured wife. Against her are these innumerable tricks, invocations of demons, incantations of the dead, daily wars, ceaseless battles, and unremitting contentions.”

John Chrysostom (349–407) important Early Church Father

St. John Chrysostom, Homily 24 on the Epistle to the Romans [PG 60:626-27] https://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2017/10/contraception-early-church-teaching-william-klimon.html

Money, God, Law, Dead

“Hello everybody! Hey hey hey! Okay! Do you know it's not... it's not very often that we do shows in daylight. And I fucking wish we'd done before, I can see you all now. And there's some beauties here tonight, I can tell you!”

Freddie Mercury (1946–1991) British singer, songwriter and record producer

Live at Milton Keynes Bowl (5 June 1982) http://www.ultimatequeen.co.uk/Songs/queenonfire.htm.

“Elegance is the only beauty that never fades”

Cassandra Kuzneski

Source: https://totalgirlboss.com/cassea-swim/

Beauty

“For love is beautiful only when you have mastered your emotions and mind.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Love

“When I'm thinking about how beautiful you are……I stroke your face with my hand

When you cry….. I wipe away your tears

When you feel happy….. I feel happy also.

When you feel blue….. I am your cheerleader

There are so many things and occassions that I will be there for you.

This is how I know I want to Marry You!”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Happiness, Cry, Feeling, Thinking

“With all my ideas and follies I could one day found a corporate company for the propagation of beautiful but unreliable imaginings.”

Robert Walser book Jakob von Gunten

Source: Jakob von Gunten

Imagination, Idea

“Beauty is the illumination of your soul.”

John O'Donohue (1956–2008) Irish writer, priest and philosopher

Source: Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

Beauty, Soul

“It takes great deal of courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Variant: It takes great courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it. And even more courage to see it in the one you love
Source: An Ideal Husband

Love, World, Courage

“Everything that is past is either a learning experience to grow on, a beautiful memory to reflect on, or a motivating factor to act upon.”

Denis Waitley (1933) American writer

Motivation, Learning, Memory, Past