An artist is an artist only because of his exquisite sense of beauty, a sense which shows him intoxicating pleasures, but which at the same time implies and contains an equally exquisite sense of all deformities and all disproportion. – Charles Baudelaire
My wife has brought great beauty into my life. And my daughter has brought me nothing but joy. Those qualities were greatly lacking. – Christopher Meloni
The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible. – Washington Irving
Unquestionably, it is possible to do without happiness; it is done involuntarily by nineteen-twentieths of mankind. – John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, 1863
