“in heavenly realms of hellas dwelttwo very different sons of zeus:one, handsome strong and born to dare--a fighter to his eyelashes--the other,cunning ugly lame;but as you'll shortly comprehenda marvellous artificernow Ugly was the husband of(as happens every now and thenupon a merely human plane)someone completely beautiful;and Beautiful,who(truth to sing)could never quite tell right from wrong,took brother Fearless by the eyesand did the deed of joy with himthen Cunning forged a web so subtleair is comparatively crude;an indestructible occultsupersnare of resistless metal:and(stealing toward the blissful pair)skilfully wafted over them-selves this implacable unthingnext,our illustrious scientistpetitions the celestial hostto scrutinize his handiwork:they(summoned by that savage yellfrom shining realms of regions dark)laugh long at Beautiful and Brave--wildly who rage,vainly who strive;and being finally releasedflee one another like the pestthus did immortal jealousyquell divine generosity,thus reason vanquished instinct andmatter became the slave of mind;thus virtue triumphed over viceand beauty bowed to uglinessand logic thwarted life:and thus--but look around you,friends and foesmy tragic tale concludes herewith:soldier,beware of mrs smith”

“But now, his liberated eyes stayed on this side, he saw and became aware of the visible, sought to be at home in this world, did not search for the true essence, did not aim at a world beyond. Beautiful was this world, looking at it thus, without searching, thus simply, thus childlike”

“Nature holds the beautiful, for the artist who has the insight to extract it. Thus, beauty lies even in humble, perhaps ugly things, and the ideal, which bypasses or improves on nature, may not be truly beautiful in the end.”

“Some people in this world have stopped looking for beauty, then wonder why their lives are so ugly. Don't be like them. The ability to appreciate beauty is of God. Especially in one another. Look for beauty in everyone you meet, and you'll find it. Everyone carries divinity within them. And everyone we meet has something to impart.”

“Being is desirable because it is identical with Beauty, and Beauty is loved because it is Being. We ourselves possess Beauty when we are true to our own being; ugliness is in going over to another order; knowing ourselves, we are beautiful; in self-ignorance, we are ugly.”

“Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness. Wabi-sabi is ambivalent about separating beauty from non-beauty or ugliness. The beauty of wabi-sabi is in one respect, the condition of coming to terms with what you consider ugly. Wabi-sabi suggests that beauty is a dynamic event that occurs between you and something else. Beauty can spontaneously occur at any moment given the proper circumstances, context, or point of view. Beauty is thus an altered state of consciousness, an extraordinary moment of poetry and grace.”