Source: The Iliad
III. 156–158 (tr. Robert Fagles); of Helen.
Richmond Lattimore's translation:
: Surely there is no blame on Trojans and strong-greaved Achaians
if for long time they suffer hardship for a woman like this one.
Terrible is the likeness of her face to immortal goddesses.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)
Camille Paglia (1947) American writer
Source: Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990), p. 71
“Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll;
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”
Alexander Pope The Rape of the Lock
Canto V, line 33
The Rape of the Lock (1712, revised 1714 and 1717)
Rebecca Wells book Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Source: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Ninon de L'Enclos (1620–1705) French author, courtesan, freethinker, and patron of the arts
Attributed in Lewis Copeland, Best Quotations for All Occasions (1965), p. 19
Attributed
“The terrible beautiful Life.”
Roger Raveel (1921–2013) painter
version in original Flemish (citaat van Roger Raveel, in het Vlaams): Het verschrikkelijke mooie leven.
title of his painting / installation - including birdcage and two living canaries, Raveel made in 1965 (translation: Fons Heijnsbroek)
1960's
La beauté qui parle aux yeux, reprit-elle, n’est que le prestige d’un moment; l’œuil du corps n'est pas toujours celui de l'âme.
Le Beau Laurence, ch. 1 (1870); Carroll Owen (trans.) Handsome Lawrence (Boston: James R. Osgood, 1871) p. 30
Patrick Süskind (1949) German writer and screenwriter
Source: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
