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Beauty

Is in the eye of the Beholder

"Beauty is the eye of the beholder" is an idiom meaning that beauty is subjective and depends on individual perception. What one person finds beautiful, another may find unappealing because their opinions and definitions of beauty differ. The concept has roots in ancient Greek philosophy, but the phrase in its modern form was popularized by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford in her 1878 novel Molly Bawn.

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Taken on Wednesday September 17, 2025
Posted on Wednesday September 17, 2025
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Dinesh said:

Subjectivity: The core idea is that beauty isn't an inherent quality of an object or person but rather a judgment made by the observer.

Personal Opinion: The phrase is often used to express that different individuals will have different tastes and opinions on what is considered beautiful.

Disagreement: It can be used to politely disagree with someone's assessment of beauty, implying that their standards differ from your own.

Historical Context

Ancient Origins: The philosophical concept dates back to ancient Greece, with thinkers like Plato exploring the transient nature of beauty.

Early Variations: Variations of the idea appeared in literature centuries before the modern phrase, such as in John Lyly's play Euphues and his England (1580) and Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost.

Modern Popularization: The exact phrasing, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," gained currency after its appearance in Margaret Wolfe Hungerford's 1878 novel, Molly Bawn.

3 months ago

Dinesh said:

“Beautiful” – together with “graceful” and “pretty,” or “sublime,” “marvelous,” “superb,” and similar expressions – is an adjective that we often employ to indicate something that we like. In this sense, it seems that what is beautiful is the same as what is good, and in fact in various historical periods there was a close link between the Beautiful and the Good

But if we judge on the basis of our everyday experience, we tend to define as good not only what we like, but also what we should like to have for ourselves. There is an infinite number of things that we consider good, a love requited, wealth honestly acquired, a refined delicacy, and in all these cases we should like to possess that good. A good is that which stimulates our desire. Even when we consider a virtuous deed to be good, we should like to have done it ourselves, or we determine to do something just as meritorious, spurred on by the example of what we consider to be good. . . .