Beauty draws us in. We can't stop looking or listening or touching. It takes us outside ourselves and it motivates us. It's essential to life and to happiness.

The idea that beauty is unimportant is the real beauty myth.

throughout human history people have scarred, painted, pierced, padded, stiffened, plucked, and buffed their bodies in the name of beauty.

Beauty is equal parts flesh and imagination: we imbue it with our dreams, saturate it with our longings.

In Brazil there are more Avon ladies than members of the army. In the United States more money is spent on beauty than on education or social services.

Physical beauty is like athletic skill: it peaks young.

When abused children under court protection were studied in California and Massachusetts, it turned out that a disproportionate number of them were unattractive...abused kids had head and face proportions that made them look less infantile and cute.