SENSATIONAL SEGUE.

The wise man is always similar to himself.

— Sextus the Pythagorean.

But because “beauty” lives so deep in the psyche, where sexuality mingles with self-esteem, and since it has been usefully defined as something that is continually bestowed from the outside and can always be taken away, to tell a woman she is ugly can make her feel ugly, act ugly, and, as far as her experience is concerned, be ugly, in the place where feeling beautiful keeps her whole.

— Naomi Wolf (The Beauty Myth)

The hero’s capacity to see the true beauty of the heroine is his central test.

— Naomi Wolf (The Beauty Myth)

A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Faust.

But that is precisely what is so good about the moment devoted to pastries: they can only be appreciated to the full extent of their subtlety when they are not eaten to assuage our hunger, when the orgy of their sugary sweetness is not destined to fill some primary need but to coat our palate with all the benevolence of the world.

— Muriel Barbery - The Gourmet