Who said this quotation: 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'?

Answer 1

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/59100.html

Answer 2

i woukd have thought that it was either a really bad artist or someone who really needed an excuse for being ugly :D

but apparently i wasnly half right:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/27/messages/958.html

BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER - "The first stirrings toward this proverb appear to have come from the English dramatist John Lyly, who wrote in 'Euphues in England' (1580). 'As neere is Fancie to Beautie, as the pricke to the Rose,' and from William Shakespeare, who in 'Love's Labour's Lost' (c.1594) penned the line 'Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye.' Almost a century and a half later, Benjamin Franklin in his 'Poor Richard's Almanack' of 1741 included the lines, 'Beauty, like supreme dominion/ Is but supported by opinion,' and Scottish philosopher David Hume's 'Essays, Moral and Political' (1742) contained the perhaps too analytical 'Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them.' It was not until 1878, however, that the modern wording of the proverb first appeared in 'Molly Brown,' by the Irish novelist Mr. Margaret Hungerford. The saying has been repeated frequently in the twentieth century." From "Wise Words and Wives' Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New" by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993).

Answer 3

William Shakespeare

Answer 4

This saying first appeared in the 3rd century BC in Greek. It didn't appear in its current form in print until the 19th century, but in the meantime there were various written forms that expressed much the same thought. In 1588, the English dramatist John Lyly, in his Euphues and his England, wrote:

"...as neere is Fancie to Beautie, as the pricke to the Rose, as the stalke to the rynde, as the earth to the roote."

Shakespeare expressed a similar sentiment in Love's Labours Lost, 1588:

Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean,
Needs not the painted flourish of your praise:
Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye,
Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues

Answer 5

The Elephant Man.

Answer 6

This site gives some information about the quote. Apparently it was a woman named Margaret Wolfe Hungerford who is usually credited with coining the phrase.

Answer 7

The Elephant man? Phantom of the opera?

Answer 8

I believe it was Shakespeare, but beware ladies. If someone says this to you I think twill be a veiled insult. In other words "I think you're lovely, but how lucky are you that you've got me".

Answer 9

Sounds like he wasn't too beautiful Probably Shakespeare not sure.

Answer 10

Stevie Wonder, or was it David Blunkitt?

Answer 11

Sounds Shakesperian to me :D