I love this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.A good reminder to me that, in all my actions and dealings with others, I should strive to be a beautiful person inside. We love viewing external beauty, and this blog celebrates that fact. But when I think of those in my life that I treasure, it is those whose inward beauty has reached out and touched my life. So just a challenge to myself and encouragement to my friends all around the world.... be beautiful today!
6 comments:
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...
please dont forget this simple fact.
i don't know if it is the human condition to place a lot of importance on external beauty, but i suppose it is good to be reminded once in a while that what's inside matters a great deal as well. i suppose that's a cliche but nevertheless true and not to be forgotten. Thanks for the reminder!
Tim....
I had a similar situation a few years ago on the CTA train here in Chicago. Except the guy actually was smiling at me from a way down in a very crowded car. He got off several stops before me and obviously was hoping I would follow, but I was running way late for an appointment and just couldn't do it. *sigh
Anonymous....
Interestingly, that common phrase is a misquoting of Plato (or perhaps an adaptation of his thought). The passage from which it comes reads:
Remember how in that communion only, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may.
Tim....
I certainly think it is natural to place importance on external beauty; we do that in all other areas of life, as in the beauty of art, nature, and such. But yes, a person who is beautiful in his actions toward others always improves himself, enhancing or else detracting from his natural beauty.
Michael, thanks for the awesome quote from Plato. I have used that expression a million times, and only now realize that it was meant literally in the sense of capturing the objective reality of beauty as form, and not as some sort of Derrida-inspired take on how we construct our own realities in our minds. fascinating. Thanks again.
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