
Also misattributed to John Steinbeck.
Source: The Works of John Ruskin: The stones of Venice, v. 1-3
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Also misattributed to John Steinbeck.
Source: The Works of John Ruskin: The stones of Venice, v. 1-3
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.
“She said it was beautiful to be loved, and that it made everything on earth look brighter.”
Source: Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time
You Shall Know Our Velocity! (2002)
Source: The Ape that Thought It Was a Peacock: Does Evolutionary Psychology Exaggerate Human Sex Differences? (2013), p. 139
“The dance of the peacock attracts not only the peahen but also the human.”
The Loom of Time (2016)
“I felt afraid.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.”
"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.