Definitely Decorative
I'm looking for quotes/one-liners/etc about male beauty -- these a some of the "famous" ones. (I have the Hamlet quote too.)
I welcome any additions to this list, especially more descriptive ones, slashy ones or funny ones.
Thank you!
What is lovely never dies, But passes into other loveliness, Star-dust, or sea-foam, flower or winged air.
Author: Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Source: A Shadow of the Night
Who doth not feel, until his failing sight Faints into dimness with its own delight, His changing cheek, his sinking heart confess, The might--the majesty of Loveliness?
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)
Source: Bride of Abydos (canto I, st. 6)
Virginia Woolf:
The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.
Ernest Renan:
Man makes holy what he believes, as he makes beautiful what he loves.
The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure
one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them,
but because he is a man of high and heroic temper.
- Aristotle
As a white candle In a holy place, So is the beauty Of an aged face.
- Joseph Campbell
Edited to add more quotes
The Smith, a mighty man is he, With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms Are strong as iron bands.
--Longfellow "The Village Blacksmith"
... and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to all the World "This was a Man!"
--Shakespeare "Julius Caesar"
... I know of nothing else but miracles ... as I walk with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water ...
--Whitman "Miracles"
You cannot choose your battlefields - The Gods do that for you
But you can plant your standard Where standard never flew.
--Nathalia Crane
... hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
--Wm Blake
They feel and flex their lithe bodies, even in spare hours, for delight in them.
TEL "The Mint"
The up-light smoothed the modeling of his face, like a faun's face, where he held it between his hands, brooding (do fauns brood?) for long minutes.
--TEL "The Mint"
Oh to see the like again, Fair and potent prince of men
--JGT Alfred's Acrostic
Your emerald fire draws me, eye and mind, seeking warmth and curious: might this hand wield my soul? So light and lithe and live within your frame.
--JGT Swords
O hands that speak, to summon and rejoice ...
--JGT Sonnet for MTT
His wrists are massive, like something sculpted out of Carrara marble by Rodin.
--Dan Simmons "Ilium"
He was as is the hawthorn tree, ringed around by gaiety, And any sorrow in his eyes his laughter did not recognize.
--Arien's Song from a children's book I failed to record the title of.
A mind responsive to beauty is a storehouse with many rooms: words, sounds, textures, all the nobler exercises of the senses leave some image filed or folded to be summoned at need.
--Dunnett "Queen's Play"
All men dream, but not equally, for those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to find it but vanity; but the dreamers of day are dangerous men, for they see their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
--TEL Seven Pillars
Love, the way-weary, groped for your body: our brief wage
--TEL earlier draft of preface to 7 Pillars
What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and motion how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god; the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals ...
--Shakespeare "Hamlet"
The Sun and I alone know the boy is beautiful.
--Inscription on ancient Greek vase
Appreciation of beauty, in whatever form it may come, is a refreshment to the soul, a reminder of our purpose, and a necessary thing.
--Gail Riordan "Meditiations on a Moment in Time"
I welcome any additions to this list, especially more descriptive ones, slashy ones or funny ones.
Thank you!
What is lovely never dies, But passes into other loveliness, Star-dust, or sea-foam, flower or winged air.
Author: Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Source: A Shadow of the Night
Who doth not feel, until his failing sight Faints into dimness with its own delight, His changing cheek, his sinking heart confess, The might--the majesty of Loveliness?
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)
Source: Bride of Abydos (canto I, st. 6)
Virginia Woolf:
The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.
Ernest Renan:
Man makes holy what he believes, as he makes beautiful what he loves.
The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure
one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them,
but because he is a man of high and heroic temper.
- Aristotle
As a white candle In a holy place, So is the beauty Of an aged face.
- Joseph Campbell
Edited to add more quotes
The Smith, a mighty man is he, With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms Are strong as iron bands.
--Longfellow "The Village Blacksmith"
... and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to all the World "This was a Man!"
--Shakespeare "Julius Caesar"
... I know of nothing else but miracles ... as I walk with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water ...
--Whitman "Miracles"
You cannot choose your battlefields - The Gods do that for you
But you can plant your standard Where standard never flew.
--Nathalia Crane
... hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
--Wm Blake
They feel and flex their lithe bodies, even in spare hours, for delight in them.
TEL "The Mint"
The up-light smoothed the modeling of his face, like a faun's face, where he held it between his hands, brooding (do fauns brood?) for long minutes.
--TEL "The Mint"
Oh to see the like again, Fair and potent prince of men
--JGT Alfred's Acrostic
Your emerald fire draws me, eye and mind, seeking warmth and curious: might this hand wield my soul? So light and lithe and live within your frame.
--JGT Swords
O hands that speak, to summon and rejoice ...
--JGT Sonnet for MTT
His wrists are massive, like something sculpted out of Carrara marble by Rodin.
--Dan Simmons "Ilium"
He was as is the hawthorn tree, ringed around by gaiety, And any sorrow in his eyes his laughter did not recognize.
--Arien's Song from a children's book I failed to record the title of.
A mind responsive to beauty is a storehouse with many rooms: words, sounds, textures, all the nobler exercises of the senses leave some image filed or folded to be summoned at need.
--Dunnett "Queen's Play"
All men dream, but not equally, for those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to find it but vanity; but the dreamers of day are dangerous men, for they see their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
--TEL Seven Pillars
Love, the way-weary, groped for your body: our brief wage
--TEL earlier draft of preface to 7 Pillars
What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and motion how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god; the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals ...
--Shakespeare "Hamlet"
The Sun and I alone know the boy is beautiful.
--Inscription on ancient Greek vase
Appreciation of beauty, in whatever form it may come, is a refreshment to the soul, a reminder of our purpose, and a necessary thing.
--Gail Riordan "Meditiations on a Moment in Time"