Appearances Quotes

“All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people that they don't like.”
― Will Rogers

“I don't know. Just because someone's pretty doesn't mean she's decent. Or vice versa. I'm not into appearances. I like flaws, I think they make things interesting.”
― Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever

“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.”
― Margaret Thatcher

“The thing about chameleoning your way through life is that it gets to where nothing is real.”
― John Green, An Abundance of Katherines

“What do I care how 'e looks? I am good-looking enough for both of us, I theenk! All these scars show is zat my husband is brave!”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

“When a girl feels that she’s perfectly groomed and dressed she can forget that part of her. That’s charm”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Short Stories

“Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns.

These things and deeds are diametrically opposed: they are as distinct as is vice from virtue. Men too often confound them: they should not be confounded: appearance should not be mistaken for truth; narrow human doctrines, that only tend to elate and magnify a few, should not be substituted for the world-redeeming creed of Christ. There is – I repeat it – a difference; and it is a good, and not a bad action to mark broadly and clearly the line of separation between them.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Is that why you've been pushing me away? Because of how you look? [...] I waited for you my whole life. Yearned for you my whole life. After Tersa told me you were coming, I spent seven hundred years searching for you[....] I never gave a damn what you looked like--tall, short, fat, thin, plain, beautiful, ugly. Why would I care about what you looked like? The flesh was the shell that housed the glory[....] Even if I couldn't be your physical lover, there are other ways to be a lover and I know them all. So don't stand there and tell me how you feel depends on how you look!”
― Anne Bishop, Dreams Made Flesh

“Our lives are mere flashes of light in an infinitely empty universe. In 12 years of education the most important lesson I have learned is that what we see as “normal” living is truly a travesty of our potential. In a society so governed by superficiality, appearances, and petty economics, dreams are more real than anything anything in the “real world”. Refuse normalcy. Beauty is everywhere, love is endless, and joy bleeds from our everyday existence. Embrace it. I love all of you, all my friends, family, and community. I am ceaselessly grateful from the bottom of my heart for everyone. The only thing I can ask of you is to stay free of materialism. Remember that every day contains a universe of potential; exhaust it. Live and love so immensely that when death comes there is nothing left for him to take. Wealth is love, music, sports, learning, family and freedom. Above all, stay gold.”
― Dominic Owen Mallary

“People who need to bully you are the easiest to push around.”
― Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

“Being liked for the way you looked is worse than not being liked at all.”
― Amanda Hocking, My Blood Approves

“I'm told I have the body of a god."

"A Greek god, or one of those gods with the horse heads or elephant's legs coming out of their chests?" Alan asked. "Next time someone tells you that, ask them to specify.”
― Sarah Rees Brennan, The Demon's Covenant

“I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

“Is," "is," "is"—the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don't know what anything "is"; I only know how it seems to me at this moment.”
― Robert Anton Wilson, Nature's God

“And I. I too.
Quite collected at cocktail parties,
meanwhile in my head
I'm undergoing open-heart surgery.”
― Anne Sexton, Transformations

“I remembered my little brother, Allyn, had appeared so innocent and angelic when he slept--similar to Kerrick. It must be a survival tactic. If Allyn hadn't looked so sweet, we would have killed him while he slept. He had been pure evil when he was awake--similar to Kerrick.”
― Maria V. Snyder, Touch of Power

“But above all, in order to be, never try to seem.”
― Albert Camus, Notebooks, 1935-1951

“People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools. ”
― Alice Walker

“Nobody wants to look like a fool. Nine times out of ten, that
reason alone keeps people from allowing themselves to believe.”
― Darynda Jones, First Grave on the Right

“Another vampire pushed her way through the crowd to stand at his
side—a pretty blue-haired Asian girl in a silver foil skirt. Clary wondered if there were any ugly vampires, or maybe any fat ones. Maybe they didn't make vampires out of ugly people. Or maybe ugly people just didn't want to live forever.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Bones

“Being afraid you'll look like a coward is the worst reason for doing anything.”
― John Irving, The Cider House Rules

“So may the outward shows be least themselves:
The world is still deceived with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“Appearances are not reality; but they often can be a convincing alternative to it. You can control appearances most of the time, but facts are what they are. When the facts are too sharp, you can craft a cheerful version of the situation and cover the facts the way that you can covered a battered old four-slice toaster with a knitted cozy featuring images of kittens.”
― Dean Koontz, The Good Guy

“Some people's affability is more deadly than the violence of coarser souls.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Illustrious Client

“The leprosy of unreality disfigured every human creature in attendance.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

“Nimium ne crede colori”
― Virgil

“All he ever knew of her was who he saw every day. All I am is who I am every day. All anyone is to anyone is a series of days.”
― Charles Yu, Sorry Please Thank You: Stories

“As a general rule, a reputation is built on manner as much as on achievement.”
― Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent