Quotes about beauty
page 13

“There's nothing quite as good as folding up into a book and shutting the world outside. If I pick the right one I can be beautiful, or fall in love, or live happily ever after. Maybe even all three.”

Bill Condon (1955) American film director

Love, Books, World

“She wins who calls herself beautiful and challenges the world to change to truly see her.”

Naomi Wolf book The Beauty Myth

Source: The Beauty Myth

Beauty, World, Change

“You're beautiful just as you are, Lyric.”

Maya Banks (1964) Author

Sweet Possession

“Adversity in life does not rob your heart of beauty. It simply teaches it a new song to sing.”

Karen White (1964) American writer

Source: The Time Between

Life, Singing, Heart

“Were they beautiful? We were all beautiful. We were in our twenties.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

“Sunsets, like childhood, are viewed with wonder not just because they are beautiful but because they are fleeting.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Source: The Gift

Childhood

“The place of true healing is a fierce place. It's a giant place. it's a place of monstrous beauty and endless dark and glimmering light.”

Cheryl Strayed book Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Source: Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Light

“Comfort is beauty muted by heroin. Sadness is beauty drained by lack of it.”

Luke Davies (1962) Australian writer

Source: Candy

Sadness

“We can get so wrapped up in our own misconceptions that we miss the simple beauty of the truth.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: Stay

Truth

“You're imagining things. Clearly, my stunning beauty has clouded your mind. -Rose Hathaway”

Richelle Mead book Frostbite

Source: Frostbite

Imagination

“And the worst thing was, there were no mirrors out there in the wild, so the princess was left wondering whether she in fact was still beautiful… or if the fall had changed the story completely.”

Scott Westerfeld book Pretties

Source: Pretties

Change, Princess

“That's beautiful,' Valkyrie said, looking at it.

Isn't it? This necklace has cost two very fine men their lives. At times, I wear it in tribute to their sacrifice. Other times, I wear it because it goes with this skirt.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Playing with Fire

Men, Time

“He was poor, yet always appeared to be giving something away; a stranger, yet everyone was his friend; no longer young, but as happy-hearted as a boy; plain and peculiar, yet his face looked beautiful to many.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Boy, Appearance, Heart, Happiness

“There's more beauty in truth, even if it is dreadful beauty.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Truth

“I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They're beautiful. Everybody's plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Love, Angels

“And we are magic talking to itself,
noisy and alone. I am queen of all my sins
forgotten. Am I still lost?
Once I was beautiful. Now I am myself”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

Source: To Bedlam and Part Way Back

“A woman may be beautiful but have poor character. A man may be a business genius, making money left and right, but lack common courtesy, sensitivity, and compassion.”

Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister

Source: Waiting and Dating

Money, Business

“I was a beautiful vampire princess loved, worshiped and admired by all. I lived in a luxurious gothic castle and I have no idea how I ended up at this fiberglass table with you losers.”

Alyson Nöel book Evermore

Source: Evermore

Love, Idea, Princess

“I seek truth and beauty in the transparency of an autumn leaf, in the perfect form of a seashell on the beach, in the curve of a woman's back, in the texture of an ancient tree trunk, but also in the elusive forms of reality.”

Isabel Allende book Portrait in Sepia

Source: Portrait in Sepia

Truth, Autumn, Reality, Tree

“I stop paying attention because as much as I love beauty, I hate stupidity, and seeing the two combined pisses me off.”

Tucker Max I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

Source: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

Love, Hate, Stupidity

“Beauty is precious, you see, and the more beautiful something is, the more precious it is; and the more precious it is the more it hurts us that it will fade away; and the more we are hurt by beauty, the more we love the world.”

Louis De Bernières book Birds Without Wings

Source: Birds Without Wings

Love, World, Hurt

“They too, knew this beautiful and harrowing landscape; they'd had the same experience of looking up from their books with fifth-century eyes and finding the world disconcertingly sluggish and alien, as if it were not their home.”

Donna Tartt book The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

Books, World, Home

“How beautiful you must be
to have been able to lead me
this far with only
the sound of your going away”

W.S. Merwin (1927–2019) American poet

Source: The Moon Before Morning

“Our only kiss was like an accident- a beautiful gasoline rainbow.”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

Kiss

“A lake is a landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

Nature

“I don't know exactly what covetous is, but in my experience it is not so much desiring someone else's virtue or happiness as rejecting it, taking offense at the beauty of it.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

Happiness

“I think you’re beautiful, the only beautiful person I’ve ever seen. I love your voice and everything to do with you, down to your clothes or the room you are sitting in. I adore you.”

E.M. Forster book Maurice

Source: Maurice

Love, Thinking, Personality, Clothes

“My soul is wrapped in harsh repose,
Midnight descends in raven-colored clothes,
But soft… behold!
A sunlight beam
Butting a swath of glimmering gleam.
My heart expands,
'tis grown a bulge in it,
Inspired by your beauty…
Effulgent.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

Color, Soul, Heart, Clothes

“I felt his hot tears and the loneliness of man and the sweetness of all men and the aching haunting beauty of the living”

John Fante book Full of Life

Source: Full of Life

Men, Tear, Loneliness

“She stroked my hair and told me I was beautiful, but I was old enough by then to know not to believe it anymore.”

Sarah Dessen book Keeping the Moon

Source: Keeping the Moon

“It was one of the few things he had to believe in, the possibility of beauty when faced with the reality of so much ugliness.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Last Stand of the New York Institute

Reality

“As beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table.”

Comte de Lautréamont (1846–1870) French poet

Chance

“There is such a thing as too much beauty in a woman and it is often a burden as crippling as homeliness and far more dangerous. It takes much luck and integrity to survive the gift of perfect beauty, and its impermanence is its most cunning betrayal.”

Pat Conroy book The Prince of Tides

Source: The Prince of Tides

Betrayal, Perfection

“Because', she said, 'your problems are not real problems. You're dating two beautiful girls at once. Think about it. That's like… having rock-star problems.'
'Having rock-star problems may be the closest I ever get to being an actual rock star.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Girl, Star, Problem, Thinking

“The atmosphere of the place soothed her automatically; the rich lantern lights, the sheer scent of paper and leather, and the fact that everywhere she looked, there were books, books, beautiful books.”

Genevieve Cogman (1972) novelist and game designer

Source: The Invisible Library

Books, Light

“When one has once fully entered the realm of love, the world — no matter how imperfect — becomes rich and beautiful, it consists solely of opportunities for love.”

Sören Kierkegaard book Works of Love

Source: Works of Love

Love, World

“What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful. And brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. And the Beatles. And me.”

Erich Segal (1937–2010) American writer

Variant: What can you say about a twenty-five year old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. The Beatles. And me.

Love, Girl

“If everyone isn't beautiful, then no one is.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

“The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Life, Reading

“God created us for this: to live our lives in a way that makes him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that he really is. This is what it means to be created in the image of God.”

John Piper (1946) American writer

God, Way

“Beauty was not simply something to behold; it was something one could do.”

Toni Morrison book The Bluest Eye

Source: The Bluest Eye

“I prefer to believe the opposite - that there is always an indestructible beauty at the heart of darkness.”

Mary Balogh (1944) Welsh-Canadian novelist

Source: A Secret Affair

Heart

“Beauty can't amuse you, but brainwork — reading, writing, thinking — can.”

Helen Gurley Brown (1922–2012) American author, editor, publisher, and businesswoman

Thinking, Reading

“Men pass in front of our eyes like butterflies, creatures of a brief season. We love them; they are brave, proud, beautiful, clever; and they die almost at once. They die so soon that our hearts are continually wracked with pain.”

Philip Pullman book Northern Lights

Source: The Golden Compass

Love, Men, Pain, Heart

“You're so beautiful. I can't believe you're almost mine.”

Debra White Smith

First Impressions

“Everyone can use a little beauty.”

Alex Flinn (1966) American children's writer

“But she wondered why beautiful things had to be wrapped up with evil history. Or was it the other way around? Maybe the evil history made it necessary to build beautiful things, to mask the darker aspects.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Way, History, Evil

“You can not entertain weak, harmful, negative thoughts ten hours a day and expect to bring about beautiful, strong and harmonious conditions by ten minutes of strong, positive, creative thought.”

Charles F. Haanel book The Master Key System

Source: The Master Key System

Strong

“The two most beautiful words in the English language are 'cheque enclosed.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

“You are beautiful,” he whispered to me. “If you say so.” “Do ye not believe me? Have I ever lied to you?” “That’s not what I mean. I mean—if you say it, then it’s true. You make it true.”

Diana Gabaldon book The Fiery Cross

Source: The Fiery Cross

“If I did not wear torn pants, orthopedic shoes, frantic disheveled hair, that is to say, if I did not tone down my beauty, people would go mad. Married men would run amuck.”

Brenda Ueland (1891–1985) Journalist and writer

Men, People, Shoe, Madness

“It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony.”

Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) English composer, conductor, and pianist

Love, Pain, Music, Disappointment

“Funny how a beautiful song could tell such an ugly story.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Variant: funny how a beautiful song could tell such a sad story
Source: Lock and Key

“It is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidences in his daily life. For he thereby deprives his life of a dimension of beauty.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Two: Soul and Body, p. 50

Life

“They're beautiful. But sad.'
Everything's sad if you make it so, I said.”

John Fowles book The Collector

Source: The Collector

Sadness

“Having an eye for beauty isn't the same thing as a weakness.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Variant: Having an eye for beauty isn't the same thing as a weakness... except possibly when it comes to you.
Source: Catching Fire

“Beauty is nothing, beauty won’t stay. You don’t know how lucky you are to be ugly, because if people like you, you know it’s for something else.”

Charles Bukowski book Tales of Ordinary Madness

Source: Tales of Ordinary Madness

People

“The more beautiful the skin is, the more deadly it is. That's what Will's like. All that pretty face and whatnot just hides how twisted up and rotten he is on the inside.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

“Lines don’t make beautiful women less beautiful”

Isabel Wolff

A Vintage Affair

Women

“And now that its ruby eyes are set into the gold, you cannot see their tear-shape, so they seem to be laughing rather than crying. It is a constant reminder to me of the human ability to create something beautiful even when things are at the darkest.”

Cressida Cowell (1966) British writer

Source: How to Twist a Dragon's Tale

Tear, Cry

“Peace is always beautiful.”

Walt Whitman book Fulles d'herba

The Sleepers, 7
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Source: Leaves of Grass

Peace

“Everyone is like a butterfly, they start out ugly and awkward and then morph into beautiful graceful butterflies that everyone loves.”

Drew Barrymore (1975) American actress, director and producer

Love

“I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of imagination — what the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth — whether it existed before or not.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Letter to Benjamin Bailey (November 22, 1817)
Letters (1817–1820)

Truth, Imagination, Heart

“It sounded artificial, like a beauty pageant contestant pledging world peace. I did feel sad, but articulating it seemed cheap to me.”

Gillian Flynn book Sharp Objects

Source: Sharp Objects

World, Sadness, Peace, Feeling

“The importance of reading, for me, is that it allows you to dream.

Reading not only educates, but is relaxing and allows you to feed your imagination - creating beautiful pictures from carefully chosen words.”

Eric Ripert (1965) French chef

Education, Dreams, Imagination, Reading

“The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both. (Death)”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Variant: I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty and I wonder how the same can be both.
Source: The Book Thief

Death