“Tis impious pleasure to delight in harm.
And beauty should be kind, as well as charm.”
To Myra, line 21; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), "Beauty", p. 57-63.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne9
1st Baron Lansdowne 1666–1735Related quotes
Edgar Degas (1834–1917) French artist
Quoted in Degas' letter to Daniel Halévy, 31 Jan 1892, from Degas Letters, ed. Marcel Guerin, trans. Marguerite Kay (1947)
1876 - 1895
“Order is the pleasure of the reason; but disorder is the delight of the imagination.”
Paul Claudel The Satin Slipper
Si l'ordre est le plaisir de la raison, le désordre est le délice de l'imagination.
Le soulier de satin: ou, Le pire n'est pas toujours sûr (Paris: Gallimard, [1929] 1936) vol. 1, p. 12; John O'Connor (trans.) The Satin Slipper (London: Sheed & Ward, 1931) p. xxiii.
“Trust not too much to that enchanting face;
Beauty's a charm, but soon the charm will pass.”
O formose puer, nimium ne crede colori.
Book II, line 17 (tr. John Dryden)
Eclogues (37 BC)
John Jay (1745–1829) American politician and a founding father of the United States
1780s, Letter to Reverend Doctor Price (1785)
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley book Mathilda
Matilda (1819)
Context: My greatest pleasure was the enjoyment of a serene sky amidst these verdant woods: yet I loved all the changes of Nature; and rain, and storm, and the beautiful clouds of heaven brought their delights with them. When rocked by the waves of the lake my spirits rose in triumph as a horseman feels with pride the motions of his high fed steed.
But my pleasures arose from the contemplation of nature alone, I had no companion: my warm affections finding no return from any other human heart were forced to run waste on inanimate objects.