more quotes, quotations and passages about beauty

The most natural beauty in the world
is honesty and moral truth.
For all beauty is truth.

Lord Shaftesbury

Beauty means this to one person, perhaps, and that to the other. And yet when any one of us has seen or heard or read that which to us is beautiful, we have known an emotion which is in every case the same in kind, if not in degree; an emotion precious and uplifting. John Galsworthy

Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty--they merely move it from their faces into their hearts. Martin Buxbaum There is certainly no absolute standard of beauty. That precisely is what makes its pursuit so interesting. John Kenneth Galbraith

Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creators of statues that are to be made beautiful; they cut away here, they smooth there, they make this line lighter, this other purer, until a lovely face has grown upon their work. So do you also; cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is in shadow; labor to make all one glow of beauty and never cease chiseling your statue until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendor of virtue, until you shall see the perfect Goodness established in the stainless shrine. Plotinus

Far away there 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

To a lady who, looking at an engraving of a house, called it an ugly
thing, he said, "No, madam, there is nothing ugly; I never saw an ugly
thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may--light, shade,
and perspective will always make it beautiful."

John Constable

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Whenever I experience something beautiful, I am with Soul.
That moment of inward breath, that pause and awareness of
"how beautiful this is" is a prayer of appreciation, a moment
of gratitude in which I behold beauty and am one with it.

Jean Shinoda Bolen

Looking for and enjoying beauty is another way to nourish the soul.
The universe is in the habit of making beauty. There are flowers
and songs, snowflakes and smiles, acts of great courage, laughter
between friends, a job well done, the smell of fresh-baked bread.
Beauty is everywhere, ready to nourish the soul. It must only
be seen to begin helping us.

Matthew Fox

Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty.
Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

Franz Kafka

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What is really beautiful needs no adorning. We do not grind
down the pearl upon a polishing stone.

Sataka

That which is striking and beautiful is not always good,
but that which is good is always beautiful.

Nino de L'Enclos

Truth exists for the wise,
beauty for the feeling heart.

Schiller

Beauty is an all-pervading presence. It unfolds to the numberless
flowers of the Spring; it waves in the branches of the trees and in
the green blades of grass; it haunts the depths of the earth and
the sea, and gleams out in the hues of the shell and the precious stone.
   And not only these minute objects, but the ocean, the mountains,
the clouds, the heavens, the stars, the rising and the setting sun
all overflow with beauty. The universe is its temple; and those people
who are alive to it can not lift their eyes without feeling themselves
encompassed with it on every side.
   Now, this beauty is so precious, the enjoyment it gives so refined
and pure, so congenial without tenderest and noblest feelings, and
so akin to worship, that it is painful to think of the multitude of people
as living in the midst of it, and living almost as blind to it as if, instead
of this fair earth and glorious sky, they were tenants of a dungeon.
   An infinite joy is lost to the world by the want of culture of this
spiritual endowment. The greatest truths are wronged if not linked
with beauty, and they win their way most surely and deeply into
the soul when arrayed in this their natural and fit attire.

William Ellery Channing

Wherever snow falls, or water flows, or birds fly, wherever day and
night meet in twilight, wherever the blue heaven is hung by clouds,
or sown with stars, wherever are forms with transparent boundaries,
wherever are outlets into celestial space, wherever is danger,
and awe, and love, there is Beauty, plenteous as rain, shed for thee.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The Poet"

I think happiness is what makes you pretty. Period. Happy people are
beautiful. They become like a mirror and they reflect that happiness.

Drew Barrymore

You are beautiful. Your beauty, just like your capacity for life, happiness,
and success, is immeasurable. Day after day, countless people across
the globe get on a scale in search of validation of beauty and social acceptance.
Get off the scale! I have yet to see a scale that can tell you how enchanting
your eyes are. I have yet to see a scale that can show you how wonderful
your hair looks when the sun shines its glorious rays on it. I have yet to see
a scale that can thank you for your compassion, sense of humor, and
contagious smile. Get off the scale because I have yet to see one that can
admire you for your perseverance when challenged in life.

Steve Maraboli

Things looked at patiently from one side after another
generally end by showing a side that is beautiful.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Be grateful for the beauty all around you
Appreciate the sky while it's blue
When skies turn to grays
Love that color as it stays
With such variety and diversion
Don't greet the day with aversion
Or fall for the mediocre and mundane
Keep your thought bright, uplifted and sane
Life forever flows with a forward motion
Ride the highest wave in this beautiful ocean.

Sandra Imperatore
with many thanks for your kind submission!

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The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get
kind that comes from within-- strength, courage, dignity.

Ruby Dee

There are no better cosmetics than a severe temperance and purity,
modesty and humility, a gracious temper and calmness of spirit;
and there is no true beauty without the signatures
of these graces in the very countenance.

John Ray

Sadly, the signals that allow men and women to find the partners who most
please them are scrambled by the sexual insecurity initiated by beauty thinking.
A woman who is self-conscious can't relax to let her sensuality come into play.
If she is hungry she will be tense. If she is "done up" she will be on the alert for
her reflection in his eyes. If she is ashamed of her body, its movement will be
stilled. If she does not feel entitled to claim attention, she will not demand that
airspace to shine in. If his field of vision has been boxed in by "beauty"--a box
continually shrinking--he simply will not see her, his real love, standing right before him.

Naomi Wolf
The Beauty Myth

Articles and book excerpts on Beauty:

You're a Beautiful Person tom walsh
Snowy Day Gifts Joe Mazzella

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It is not growing like a tree
In bulk, doth make me better be;
Or standing long an oak tree, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sear:
A lily of a day
Is fairer far in May,
Although it fall and die that night--
It was the plant and flower of Light.
In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be.

Ben Jonson

For it is only framed in space that beauty blooms. Only in space are
events and objects and people unique and significant--and therefore
beautiful. A tree has significance if one sees it against the empty face
of sky. A note in music gains significance from the silences on either
side. A candle flowers in the space of night. Even small and casual
things take on significance if they are washed in space, like a few
autumn grasses in one corner of an Oriental painting,
the rest of the page bare.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Gift from the Sea

What is beautiful? Whatever is perceived joyfully is beautiful.
Bliss is the essence of beauty.

Nisargadatta

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You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human
being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight.

Elizabeth Gilbert

Beauty, I believe, comes from God;
therefore, there can be no beauty without goodness.

Baldassare Castiglione

No synonym for God is so perfect as Beauty. Whether as seen carving
the lines of the mountains with glaciers, or gathering matter into stars,
or planning the movements of water, or gardening--still all is Beauty.

John Muir