"Through the pursuit of beauty we shape the world as a home and come to understand our own nature as spiritual beings."

"The great artists of the past were aware that human life was full of chaos and suffering but they had a remedy for this and the name of that remedy was beauty. The beautiful work of art brings consolation in sorrow and affirmation in joy, it shows human life to be worthwhile"

"Styles may change, details may come and go, but the broad demands of aesthetic judgement are permanent."

"We call something beautiful, when we gain pleasure from contemplating it as an individual object, for its own sake, and in its presented form."

"Beauty is a value as important as truth and goodness"

"Like the pleasure of friendship, the pleasure in beauty is curious: it aims to understand its object, and to value what it finds."

"But what can you do with another person's beauty? The satisfied lover is as little able to possess the beauty of his beloved as the one who hopelessly observes it from afar."

"Affect not to despise beauty: no one is freed from its dominion; But regard it not a pearl of price--it is fleeting as the bow in the clouds."

"Beauty can be consoling, disturbing, sacred, profane; it can be exhilarating, appealing, inspiring, chilling. It can affect us in an unlimited variety of ways. Yet it is never viewed with indifference: beauty demands to be noticed; it speaks to us directly like the voice of an intimate friend. If there are people who are indifferent to beauty, then it is surely because they do not perceive it."