[H]e hath a most remarkable Beard, the largest and blackest I ever saw. – Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, 1749

A particular face shows determination merely by the turn of the moustache; but the moustache is robbed of all its expression unless it be worn by itself. Accompanied by the other parts of the beard, it loses its originality, it ceases to be a marked characteristic of will or temper. – Charles Blanc, Art in Ornament and Dress, 1875

The discovery of a grey hair when you are brushing out your whiskers of a morning—first fallen flake of the coming snows of age—is a disagreeable thing…. – Alexander Smith, “An Essay on an Old Subject”

If you think that to grow a beard is to acquire wisdom, a goat with a fine beard is at once a complete Plato. – Lucian of Samosata, in The Greek Anthology, Volume IV, “Book XI: The Convivial a