We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes.
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Profession: American Poet, Essayist
Beauty ought to look a little surprised: it is the emotion that best suits her face. The beauty who does not look surprised, who accepts her position as her due -- she reminds us too much of a prima donna.
Author: Edward M. Forster (1879-1970)
Profession: British Novelist, Essayist
The pursuit of beauty is much more dangerous nonsense than the pursuit of truth or goodness, because it affords a stronger temptation to the ego.
Author: Northrop Frye (1912-1991)
Profession: Canadian Literary Critic
There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.
Author: R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)
Profession: American Inventor, Designer, Poet, Philosopher
There is certainly no absolute standard of beauty. That precisely is what makes its pursuit so interesting.
Author: John Kenneth Galbraith (1908)
Profession: American Economist
Beauty is an outward gift, which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.
Author: Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
Profession: British Historian
Beauty in not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.
Author: Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)
Profession: Lebanese Poet, Novelist
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
Author: Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)
Profession: Lebanese Poet, Novelist
Beauty is composed of an eternal, invariable element whose quantity is extremely difficult to determine, and a relative element which might be, either by turns or all at once, period, fashion, moral, passion.
Author: Jean-Luc Godard (1930)
Profession: French Filmmaker, Author
Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws, which otherwise would have been hidden from us forever.
Author: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)
Profession: German Poet, Dramatist, Novelist
Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself.
Author: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)
Profession: German Poet, Dramatist, Novelist
Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest.
Author: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)
Profession: German Poet, Dramatist, Novelist
There have been many definitions of beauty in art. What is it? Beauty is what the untrained eyes consider abominable.
Author: Edmond and Jules De Goncourt (1822-1896)
Profession: French Writers
A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.
Author: Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658)
Profession: Spanish Philosopher, Writer
The criterion of true beauty is that it increases on examination; if false, that it lessens. There is therefore, something in true beauty that corresponds with right reason, and is not the mere creation of fancy.
Author: Lord Greville (1554-1628)
Profession: British Poet