Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
VoltaireRead
To a toad what is beauty? A female with two lovely pop-eyes, a wide mouth, yellow belly, and green spotted back.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Beauty is subjective and varies significantly across different perspectives and experiences.
In this quote, Voltaire emphasizes the idea that beauty is not universal but instead dependent on individual perception. He uses the example of a toad's perspective, illustrating that what one finds beautiful can vary drastically from another's viewpoint, ultimately reflecting the diversity of standards by which beauty is judged in nature and society.
Themes
BeautySubjectivityPerceptionPhilosophyNature
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about beauty standards in different cultures.
More from Voltaire
All quotes βHe was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.
VoltaireRead
It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.
VoltaireRead
It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
VoltaireRead
We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.
VoltaireRead
It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.
VoltaireRead
Similar quotes
I were better to be eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.
William ShakespeareRead
I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor...I truly believe that when the rich meet the poor, riches will have no meaning. And when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end.
Shane ClaiborneRead
If I am mad, it is mercy! May the gods pity the man who in his callousness can remain sane to the hideous end!
H. P. LovecraftRead
I was early taught by sorrow to shed tears, and now when sudden joy lights up, or any unexpected sorrow strikes my heart, I find it difficult to repress the full and swelling tide of feeling.
Dorothea DixRead
The work of woman is not to lessen the severity or the certainty of the penalty for the violation of the moral law, but to prevent this violation by the removal of the causes which lead to it.
Susan B. AnthonyRead
In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason.
Mary WollstonecraftRead