the voice of beauty speaks softly; it creeps only into the most fully awakened souls

The slow arrow of beauty. The most noble kind of beauty is that which does not carry us away suddenly, whose attacks are not violent or intoxicating (this kind easily awakens disgust), but rather the kind of beauty which infiltrates slowly, which we carry along with us almost unnoticed, and meet up with again in dreams; finally, after it has for a long time lain modestly in our heart, it takes complete possession of us, filling our eyes with tears, our hearts with longing. What do we long for when we see beauty? To be beautiful. We think much happiness must be connected with it. But that is an error.

The beauty of nature, like every other kind of beauty, is quite jealous; it demands that one serve it alone.

About sacrifice and the offering of sacrifices, sacrificial animals think quite differently from those who look on: but they have never been allowed to have their say.

Women's modesty generally increases with their beauty.

Is the world really beautified by the fact that man thinks it beautiful? He has humanized it, that is all.