Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux Quotes

You can always recognize truth by its beauty and simplicity.

For truth has such a face and such a mien, as to be loved needs only to be seen.

To me, 'beauty' means to be natural, creative, honest - to say the truth.

What is really beautiful must always be true.

Truth is most beautiful undraped.

Being truthful is the new beautiful

All truths, not merely ideas, but truthful faces, truthful pictures or songs, are highly beautiful.

Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes.

That which is really beautiful has no need of anything; not more than law, not more than truth, not more than benevolence or modesty.

No matter how plain a woman may be, if truth and honesty are written across her face, she will be beautiful.

A lily or a rose never pretends, and its beauty is that it is what it is.

To tell the truth is to become beautiful.

No woman is capable of being beautiful who is not incapable of being false.

A good man often appears gauche simply because he does not take advantage of the myriad mean little chances of making himself look stylish. Preferring truth to form, he is not constantly at work upon the facade of his appearance.

There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.

Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.

All beauty is truth, and all truth is compassionate. Few know that; fewer still can express it.

There is nothing better than an attractive woman who doesn't act attractive.

My first wish is to be simple in my actions, truthful in my speech, honest in my opinions, and natural in my behavior. In other words, I want to be clean in mind, heart, and body.

Knowing ourselves, we are beautiful; in self-ignorance, we are ugly.

No picture can be good which deceives by its imitation, for the very reason that nothing can be beautiful which is not true.

Perfect sincerity and transparency make a great part of beauty, as in dewdrops, lakes, and diamonds.

Lies cannot nourish or protect you. Only freedom from fear, freedom from lies, can make us beautiful, and keep us safe.

By the word simplicity, is not always meant folly or ignorance; but often, pure and upright Nature, free from artifice, craft or deceitful ornament.

The ornament of beauty, Shakespeare wrote, is suspect. And he was right. But beauty itself, unadorned and unaffected, is sacred, I think, worthy of our awe and our loyalty.