We live only to discover beauty

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness." - John Keats

"We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting." – Kahlil Gibran

“I love people who don’t try to be anything else other than what they are. Part of what I do, do not deal with being theatrical and changing identities quite a lot. And I love people who just don’t invest in any of that — people who are effortless in being themselves. Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks. Not in what they say. Just in what they are
because beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the marrows of the bone itself. Beauty can be found in consoling, in disturbing, in sacredness, and profanity; it can be exhilarating, appealing, inspiring, and chilling. It can affect us in an unlimited variety of ways. Yet it is never viewed with indifference: beauty demands to be noticed; it speaks to us directly like the voice of an intimate friend. 

If there are people who are indifferent to beauty, then it is surely because they do not perceive it. Therefore judge nothing by the appearance because the more beautiful the serpent, the more fatal its sting. It certainly is a soft, smooth, slippery thing, and therefore of a nature which easily slips in and permeates our souls. 

Haven’t we heard often that we should never judge a book by the cover? So it is with beauty too!

The beauty of our real beauty is that though we live and travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. The bitter truth is that sometimes our hearts are so drunk with a beauty that our eyes could never see the real beauty eluding us. To me beauty is truth's smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror and believes that which is striking and beautiful is not always good, but that which is good is always beautiful. I don't like standard beauty – for there is no beauty without any goodness in it. Isn’t it amazing to see some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty - they merely move it from their faces into their hearts where it dwells all the time. It is as if in every man's heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty. The fact is no one can take credit for beauty at sixteen when the mind is immature and lack wisdom and rarely do we see this at such tender age, but if you are beautiful at sixty, it will be your soul's own doing. The beautiful things of the earth do become dearer as they elude pursuit. That’s how I perceive the magnificence of real beauty.

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart. Taking joy in living is the best beauty that I have ever conceptualized in mortals. Sometimes the object which was so beautiful under certain conditions will turn ugly under different circumstances. People seem to be a ‘thing of beauty’ is like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in; their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within. It is a precarious trace that eternity causes to appear to us and that it takes away from us, like a manifestation of eternity, and a sign of death as well. Often it seems to me to be an evil flower of nothingness, or else the cry of the world as it dies, or a desperate, sumptuous prayer.

At time it can become terrible and an awful thing! It is terrible because it has not been fathomed, for God sets us nothing but riddles. Here the boundaries meet and all contradictions exist side by side. It is again nothing but the beginning of terror which we are barely able to endure and are awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us. Each single angel of beauty sometimes becomes terrifying why? Because beauty itself soon fades, like when a woman has beauty and nothing else, well, it's like putting all the goods in the shop window, isn't it? And the moment she loses her good looks--poor creature! what is she? Just a mere bit of faded useless finery to be thrown aside. Beauty soon grows familiar in the eyes of the beholder and fades in his eye, and palls upon the senses. Like most people we do tend to think the best of those who are blessed with beauty; we have difficulty imagining that physical perfection can conceal twisted emotions or a damaged mind. Therefore physical beauty definitely never lasts! No guarantee whatsoever!

Though there abounds beauty around us in many forms, beautiful lips, beautiful eyes and what not, I rarely do see great beauty and great virtue dwell together. When these two, the beauty and virtue are seen together I deem it to be a gift of God in God's own handwriting - a wayside sacrament, a shadow of God on the universe. If you get to see a simple beauty and nothing else, you get about the best things of God creations of love.

Therefore friends, sometimes, very quietly and graciously, you can inspire other people by showing them that there’s a different way and many perceptions of beauty and bring about a colossal change in the hearts of many. You may not be feeling it inside, but if you display it like you mean it, then it can give permission to be kind to all and embrace our individuality as a beautiful YOU to others. That’s the way I want to see beauty in you all.” ~ Anthony Sunny Kunneth