How do you define beauty?

Question

And what do you consider astonishingly lovely?

Answer 1

Beauty



And a poet said, "Speak to us of Beauty."

Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?

And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?

The aggrieved and the injured say, "Beauty is kind and gentle.

Like a young mother half-shy of her own glory she walks among us."

And the passionate say, "Nay, beauty is a thing of might and dread.

Like the tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us."

The tired and the weary say, "beauty is of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit.

Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow."

But the restless say, "We have heard her shouting among the mountains,

And with her cries came the sound of hoofs, and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions."

At night the watchmen of the city say, "Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east."

And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say, "we have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset."

In winter say the snow-bound, "She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills."

And in the summer heat the reapers say, "We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves, and we saw a drift of snow in her hair."

All these things have you said of beauty.

Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied,

And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.

It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,

But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.

It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,

But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.

It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,

But rather a garden forever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.

People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.

But you are life and you are the veil.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

But you are eternity and you are the mirror.


Kahil Gibran, The Prophet

Answer 2

Beauty is purely a sum total of a person, inside and out. I feel that a person is beautiful when they exhibit integrity, purity, faithfulness, talent, honesty, loyalty, and a willingness to help others--tolerance. They just know how to interact with others. Treat each person with equality. Then there is temperance and fortitude which is inner strength. We all know beautiful exteriors are nice but what if a person is heavy or not attractive--they still can be the nicest, kindest,people you'll ever know.

Answer 3

Beauty is everywhere, if you've got a keen eye...
Astonishingly lovely? My cousins' kids... A bit loud, though...
& the eyes of that guy at work... Two black pearls... Shame he is really unsufferable...

Answer 4

If I may,

The trend toward "Beauty" and "Youth" has in its roots one thing: scarcity. That is, it has been the trend that what is rare, is more sought after. In the past, when old age was rare, i.e. people didn't live as long, and when most people were thin, i.e. malnourished, the "larger" female form was the standard of beauty, and the older female form was seen as a vessel of wisdom. These both had in them a nod to evolutionary biology, as we "rubberneck" at accident sites to find successful strategies to avoid similar fates, we looked to those who had survived life for strategies do the same.

As for males, the older males usually had access to more resources, therefore were more attractive to the female population, this being the standard for defining male "Beauty" and
"Youth". This, unlike the female definition, is still seen as a viable expression, for example, one needs look no farther than Hugh Hefner, a "sex symbol", who has access to all the advantages of a large fortune and long experience. However, this is changing, as our accelerated Western culture has made it easier for the younger, more active to amass a large fortune at a much younger age, leading to a slow shift from Cary Grant types of sex symbols to a Brad Pitt types.

All in all, the expression of "Youth" and "Beauty", for both males and females, leads back to the same evolutionary perogative: what is rare is what is valuable, what is available can be ignored. We see ourselves as being the pinnicle of intelligence on this planet, yet we are all slavishly devoted to our biologial drives, and blissfully unaware of it at the same time. What fools we mortals be...

So, the question of what is beautiful can be restated to: What is rare in your life?

Peace? Then watch a sunset alone in a forrest...

Love? Then hold a sleeping newborn...

Passion? Then watch someone do what they really love...

Wisdom? Then listen to a wise man speak... if you can find one...

Wonder? Then watch a young child explore his world...

Hope? Then talk to a cancer patient fighting for his life...

And so on...for every human emotion and feeling...

Answer 5

beauty is inner beauty, not your looks on the outside...i find life astonishingly lovely

Answer 6

define beauty = The impoverished being fed...

Even though the great "pendulum" of thought is swinging in the opposite direction...

The hopeless being helped...

The world populace reaching out to each other in forums like this.

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astonishingly lovely = to me is parents sacrificing so much for their children.. encouraging their children to be, all they could ever possibly be... [as opposed to parents who systematically destroy their own children.. directly or indirectly (neglect), physically or mentally...]

Answer 7

Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder. What may be beautiful to one person may be grotesque to another.
What I think is beautiful appearance wise is pale blue eyes, long brown hair or long black hair, slightly shorter then me, and has enough confidence in themselves to not second guess their own decisions.

Answer 8

Beauty is power. Beauty never travels in a group. Arabian Proverbs.
)-

Answer 9

1) I don't define it, I just look at it.
2) Can't really say on a family site like this.
(think of the children)

Answer 10

Feeling good on the inside shows on the out.



Krazy Libra