Quotes about beauty
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Vincent Van Gogh photo
Kurt Gödel photo
Gianni Agnelli photo

“There is nothing more beautiful than a beautiful woman.”

Gianni Agnelli (1921–2003) Italian businessman

Agnelli: The Rules of the Game, Vanity Fair (1991)

Alex Jones photo

“Look, when you realize how fake it all is; the football, the basketball, the Lady Gaga, the Justin Bieber—you know, who gives you these carbon tax messages. They tell your kids they gotta love Justin Biebler [sic], and then Biebler [sic] says "hand in your guns", "pass the Cyber Security Act", and "the police state is good", and then your children are turned into a mindless vassals—who now, they look up to some twit, instead of looking up to Thomas Jefferson, or looking up to Nikola Tesla, or looking up to Magellan; I mean, kids, Magellan is a lot cooler than Justin Bieber! He circumnavigated with one ship the entire planet! He was killed by wild natives before they got back to Portugal! And when they got back there was only like eleven people alive of the two hundred and something crew and the entire ship was rotting down to the waterline! That's destiny! That's will! That's striving! That's being a trailblazer and explore! Going into space! Mathematics! Quantum mechanics! The secrets of the universe! It's all there! Life is fiery with its beauty! Its incredible detail! Tuning into it! They wanna shutter your mind, talking about Justin Bieber! It's pure evil! They're taking your intellect, your soul, and giving you Michael Jordan and Bieber. Unlock your human potential! Defeat the globalists who wanna shutter your mind!—Your doorways to perception!—I wanna see you truly live! I wanna see you truly be who you are!”

Alex Jones (1974) American radio host, author, conspiracy theorist and filmmaker

Alex Jones: The "Justin Biebler" Rant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDMB0KyhPN8, 21 February 2011.
2011

Elvis Presley photo

“What honey? What is that? It's a sign, I can't see it, wait a minute. Oh, thank you darlin', thank you very much. Oh, thank you. The thought is beautiful dear, and I love you for it, but I, I haven't been caught up in this thing and I can't accept this kingship thing because to me there's only one, which is Christ.”

Elvis Presley (1935–1977) American singer and actor

September 30, 1974. South Bend, IN. Notre Dame Ath Center.
Source: http://www.elvisconcerts.com/real/oct74-01.htm
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEZpSFnDxRg

Rich Mullins photo
Shams-i Tabrizi photo

“Nothing kills the soul that commands to evil (Nafs al Ammarra) like seeing the beauty of the heart.”

Shams-i Tabrizi (1185–1248) 1185-1248, spiritual instructor of Mewlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi.

Me & Rumi (2004)

Justin Bieber photo

“I don't like girls who wear lots of make-up and you can't see their face. Some girls are beautiful but insecure and look much better without the make-up, but decide to put loads on. I like girls with nice eyes and a nice smile.”

Justin Bieber (1994) Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor

Quoted in MTV Justin Bieber: "Girls Look Better Without Make-Up" http://www.mtv.co.uk/news/justin-bieber/202740-justin-bieber, April 2010

Friedrich Schiller photo

“It is through beauty that we arrive at freedom.”

Letter 2
On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)

Ben Kowalewicz photo

“Lesson one: If you're ever in a beautiful cathedral, take your hat off!”

Ben Kowalewicz (1975) musician

From "The Diary of Billy Talent":

Suman Pokhrel photo
Eleanor H. Porter photo
Bawa Muhaiyaddeen photo
Lady Gaga photo
Socrates photo
Georges Bizet photo

“Ah, music! What a beautiful art! But what a wretched profession!”

Georges Bizet (1838–1875) French composer

Starement of 3 August 1867, as quoted in An Encyclopedia of Quotations about Music (1981) by Nat Shapiro, p. 115

Babur photo
Joseph Goebbels photo

“O this world is beautiful because of you! To love somebody means that we're closer to God.”

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister

O diese Welt ist schön durch dich! Die Liebe zu einem Menschen führt uns Gott näher.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Hafez photo

“The dimple that thy chin contains has beauty in its round,
That never has been fathomed yet by myriad thoughts profound.”

Hafez (1326–1389) Persian poet

Source: Odes, CXLIII, in Hafiz of Shiraz: Selections from his Poems, translated from the Persian, by Herman Bicknell (1875), p. 197; quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 59

Sri Anandamoyi Ma photo
Henri-Frédéric Amiel photo

“Each bud flowers but once and each flower has but its minute of perfect beauty; so, in the garden of the soul each feeling has, as it were, its flowering instant, its one and only moment of expansive grace and radiant kingship.”

Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881) Swiss philosopher and poet

30 December 1850
Journal Intime (1882), Journal entries
Context: Each bud flowers but once and each flower has but its minute of perfect beauty; so, in the garden of the soul each feeling has, as it were, its flowering instant, its one and only moment of expansive grace and radiant kingship. Each star passes but once in the night through the meridian over our heads and shines there but an instant; so, in the heaven of the mind each thought touches its zenith but once, and in that moment all its brilliancy and all its greatness culminate. Artist, poet, or thinker, if you want to fix and immortalize your ideas or your feelings, seize them at this precise and fleeting moment, for it is their highest point. Before it, you have but vague outlines or dim presentiments of them. After it you will have only weakened reminiscence or powerless regret; that moment is the moment of your ideal.

Qasem Soleimani photo

“One type of paradise that is portrayed for mankind is streams, beautiful nymphs and greeneries. But there is another kind of paradise. ... The warfront was the lost paradise of the human beings, indeed.”

Qasem Soleimani (1957–2020) Iranian senior military officer

In a 2009 interview
Quoted in "Soleimani, a General Who Became Iran Icon by Targeting US" https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/01/02/world/middleeast/ap-ml-iran-qassem-soleimani.html. The Associated Press

Kuvempu photo

“Victory to you Mother Karnataka,
The daughter of Mother India!
Hail the land of beautiful rivers and forests!
Hail the abode of saints and seers!”

Kuvempu (1904–1994) Kannada novelist, poet, playwright, critic, and thinker

Jaya Bharata Jananiya Tanujate (1930)

Volodymyr Zelensky photo

“We do not believe anyone - we do not trust any beautiful verbal constructions. There is a real situation on the battlefield.”

Volodymyr Zelensky (1978) 6th President of Ukraine

2022, "We will not give up anything. And we will fight for every meter of our land" (30 March 2022)

José Baroja photo

“The beauty of art is in our imperfection.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: Radiorama de Occidente. "La Otra Historia". 1480 Rock and Pop AM. Guadalajara. Mexico.

José Baroja photo
Yukio Mishima photo
Terry Pratchett photo

“She was beautiful, but she was beautiful in the way a forest fire was beautiful: something to be admired from a distance, not up close.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

Source: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Johnny Depp photo
Bob Dylan photo

“Behind every beautiful thing there's been some kind of pain”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Time Out of Mind (1997), Not Dark Yet

Paul McCartney photo

“Paul's last words to Linda: "You're up on your beautiful Appaloosa stallion. It's a fine spring day. We're riding through the woods. The bluebells are all out, and the sky is clear-blue".”

Paul McCartney (1942) English singer-songwriter and composer

I had barely got to the end of the sentence when she closed her eyes and gently slipped away. She was unique, and the world is a better place for having known her. I love you, Linda. note: Last words to his wife, Linda, as recounted by McCartney in a statement released to the press three days after her death
Source: as quoted in "Linda's Death 'Heartbreak' for McCartney" https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=99480655 by Emma Ross, Tucson Citizen (April 21, 1998), p. B1

Louisa May Alcott photo

“Oh, Jo, how could you? Your one beauty.”

Source: Little Women

Spencer W. Kimball photo
Eleanor Roosevelt photo

“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
George Soros photo
Ernest Hemingway photo
Michelangelo Buonarroti photo

“Beauty is the purgation of superfluities.”

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet

Letter to Rene Lui Descartes XIV (6 March 1540) As quoted in Character Sketches: Or, The Blackboard Mirror (1890) by George Augustus Lofton, p. 432.

William Morris photo
Stephen King photo
Cornelius Agrippa photo
Albert Einstein photo

“The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Letter to the minister of a church in Brooklyn (20 November 1950), p. 95. The minister had earlier written Einstein asking if he would send him a signed version of a quote about the Catholic church attributed to Einstein in Time magazine (see the "Misattributed" section below), and Einstein had written back to say the quote was not correct, but that he was "gladly willing to write something else which would suit your purpose". According to the book, the minister replied "saying he was glad the statement had not been correct since he too had reservations about the historical role of the Church at large", and said that "he would leave the decision to Einstein as to the topic of the statement", to which Einstein replied with the statement above.
Attributed in posthumous publications, Albert Einstein: The Human Side (1979)
Context: The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life. To make this a living force and bring it to clear consciousness is perhaps the foremost task of education. The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action.

“With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.”

Max Ehrmann (1872–1945) American writer, poet, and attorney

Source: Desiderata: A Poem for a Way of Life

Ellen DeGeneres photo

“Beauty is about being comfortable in your own skin. It's about knowing and accepting who you are.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding

Johnny Depp photo
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada photo
Wallace Stevens photo
Virginia Woolf photo
John Ruskin photo
Hayao Miyazaki photo
Richard Rohr photo

“Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity but to change the mind of humanity about God. It is “simple and beautiful;” as Einstein said great truth would always have to be.”

Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest

Source: Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self

William Shakespeare photo
Diana Vreeland photo
Mario Benedetti photo
Franz Kafka photo

“I glanced up at him. "I love things that are beautiful when you don't expect them to be.”

Elizabeth Chandler (1954) writer

Source: The Back Door of Midnight

Rachel Carson photo

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.”

Rachel Carson (1907–1964) American marine biologist and conservationist

Source: The Sense of Wonder (1965)
Context: Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. Whatever the vexations or concerns of their personal lives, their thoughts can find paths that lead to inner contentment and to renewed excitement in living. Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.

Katherine Paterson photo
Charles Baudelaire photo

“I can barely conceive of a type of beauty in which there is no Melancholy.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

Variant: I can barely conceive a type of beauty in which there is no melancholy.

Margaret Atwood photo

“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) American psychiatrist

As quoted in The Leader's Digest : Timeless Principles for Team and Organization (2003) by Jim Clemmer, p. 84

Louisa May Alcott photo

“Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist

As quoted in Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book (1923) by Elbert Hubbard, p. 62

Peter Singer photo
Hélène Cixous photo
Gabriela Mistral photo
Eleanor Roosevelt photo

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

Often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt without an original source in her writings, for example in the introduction to It Seems to Me : Selected Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt (2001) by Leonard C. Schlup and Donald W. Whisenhunt, p. 2 http://books.google.com/books?id=UeFWjTMcLZYC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false. But archivists have not been able to find the quote in any of her writings, see the comment from Ralph Keyes in The Quote Verifier above.
Disputed

Rainer Maria Rilke photo

“For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror
which we are barely able to endure, and it amazes us so,
because it serenely disdains to destroy us.
Every angel is terrible.”

First Elegy (as translated by Stephen Mitchell)
Source: Duino Elegies (1922)
Context: Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels'
hierarchies? and even if one of them
pressed me against his heart: I would be consumed
in that overwhelming existence. For beauty is nothing
but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains
to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.

George Orwell photo
Alain de Botton photo
Oscar Wilde photo
Charles Bukowski photo
Karen Blixen photo
Yves Saint Laurent photo
Anne Frank photo

“I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.”

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

Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

Jeff Buckley photo
Frédéric Chopin photo

“Concerts are never real music, you have to give up the idea of hearing in them all the most beautiful things of art.”

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Polish composer

Said to one of his students, according to "Chopin: Pianist and Teacher: As Seen by His Pupils" by Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger

Gustav Stresemann photo
Hugh Laurie photo
G. H. Hardy photo

“Mathematicians have constructed a very large number of different systems of geometry, Euclidean or non-Euclidean, of one, two, three, or any number of dimensions. All these systems are of complete and equal validity. They embody the results of mathematicians' observations of their reality, a reality far more intense and far more rigid than the dubious and elusive reality of physics. The old-fashioned geometry of Euclid, the entertaining seven-point geometry of Veblen, the space-times of Minkowski and Einstein, are all absolutely and equally real. …There may be three dimensions in this room and five next door. As a professional mathematician, I have no idea; I can only ask some competent physicist to instruct me in the facts.
The function of a mathematician, then, is simply to observe the facts about his own intricate system of reality, that astonishingly beautiful complex of logical relations which forms the subject-matter of his science, as if he were an explorer looking at a distant range of mountains, and to record the results of his observations in a series of maps, each of which is a branch of pure mathematics. …Among them there perhaps none quite so fascinating, with quite the astonishing contrasts of sharp outline and shade, as that which constitutes the theory of numbers.”

G. H. Hardy (1877–1947) British mathematician

"The Theory of Numbers," Nature (Sep 16, 1922) Vol. 110 https://books.google.com/books?id=1bMzAQAAMAAJ p. 381

Scott Jurek photo
Shahrukh Khan photo

“Like beauty, stardom too is skin-deep.”

Shahrukh Khan (1965) Indian actor, producer and television personality

From interview with Komal Nahta

Charles Manson photo

“Rubin, I am not of your world. I've spent all my life in prison. When I was a child I was an orphan and too ugly to be adopted. Now I am too beautiful to be set free.”

Charles Manson (1934–2017) American criminal and musician

As quoted by Jerry Rubin in recounting his visit with Manson in We Are Everywhere (1971)

Socrates photo
Penélope Cruz photo
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn photo
C.G. Jung photo
John Kricfalusi photo
Rabia Basri photo
Karel Čapek photo