I have never made a living from my looks—I nonetheless have always been fascinated by the topic of beauty, whether it be in nature or people.

Beautiful people are especially interesting to me, as growing up, I didn’t fit the Western cultural norm of “beautiful.” I was too dark, too exotic-looking and had the wrong body type complete with short, stocky legs and square-shaped feet that could not fit into high heels.

As a gullible tween and teen, I certainly took what the fashion magazines said to heart and more than a few dollars and hours were spent trying to achieve the ideal.

Luckily, as I have gotten older, things have started to change. For one, there is a lot more diversity being shown in the media than when I was growing up. Secondly, now that I am older, I put less stock into how I look.

That isn’t to say I don’t care.

I do.

While I enjoy dressing up and wearing make-up, I am not obsessed with looking perfect or even fitting a certain mold, like I was years ago. Plus, at the risk of sounding cliche, the older I get, the more I come to realize that true beauty really does come from within.

For centuries, many others have commented on beauty and below are some of the best things ever said about it.

My favorite quotes about beauty:

1. “The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.” ~ Francis Bacon

2. “It’s easy to be beautiful; it’s difficult to appear so.” ~ Frank O’Hara from “Meditations in an Emergency”

3. “Beauty is whatever gives joy.” ~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

4. “Beauty fades, dumb is forever.” ~ Judge Judy

5. “I’d rather be rich than pretty. If you are rich,  you can buy pretty.” ~ Sandra Bernhard

6. “Happy girls are the prettiest.” ~ Audrey Hepburn

7. “There is a kind of beauty in imperfection.” ~ Conrad Hall

8. “Everything has beauty, but not everyone can see it.” ~ Confucius

9. “Beauty’s where you find it.” ~ Madonna

10. “There are no bad pictures; that’s just how your face looks sometimes.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

11. “Everyone has something of beauty about them. But loving let’s you look and look and look again.”

~ Ally Condie

12. “A pretty face may be enough to catch a man, but it takes character and good nature to hold him.”

~ Thomas More

13. “It’s the things that aren’t accepted as conventionally beautiful that I find more attractive.” ~ Marc Jacobs

14.  “The human body is the best work of art.” ~ Jess C. Scott

15. “You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.” ~ Amy Bloom

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Author: Kimberly Lo

Editor: Ashleigh Hitchcock

Photo: flickr