“To all apparent beauties blind, each blemish strikes an envious mind.”

“In nature there's no blemish but the mind;None can be called deformed but the unkind:Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous evilAre empty trunks, o'erflourished by the devil.”

“The beautiful minds recognize each other.”

“I had a microscopic eye for the blemish, for the grain of ugliness which to me constituted the sole beauty of the object.”

“Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.”

“But women are very differently situated with respect to eachother - for they are all rivals (...) Is it then surprising that when the sole ambition of woman centres in beauty, and interest gives vanity additional force, perpetual rivalships should ensue? They are all running the same race, and would rise above the virtue of morals, if they did not view each other with a suspicious and even envious eye.”