Do you suppose that your beard creates brains and therefore you grow that fly-flapper? Take my advice and shave it off at once; for that beard is a creator of lice and not of brains. – Ammianus (2nd century A.D.), in The Greek Anthology, Volume IV, “Book XI: The Co

To draw it to a fine point, as was done under the Empire… is to give the face of the wearer a factitious and evanescent expression, since the points cannot be kept stiff without the use of a cosmetic, easily detected and soon melted. – Charles Blanc, Art in Ornament and Dress, 1875

The care that we bestow on our person is a species of politeness towards others; thus it is that many persons shave some part of their beard, in order to unite freedom of toilette with an appearance of cleanliness and trimness. – Charles Blanc, Art in Ornament and Dress, 1875