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Roses would be annoying weeds if the blooms never withered and died. Beauty resides in the knowledge that it doesn’t last.

— Abraham Verghese The Covenant of Water (2023)

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Beauty

More quotes by Abraham Verghese

"A rich man's faults are covered with money, but a surgeon's faults are covered with earth."

Cutting for Stone (2009)

The world turns on our every action, and our every omission, whether we know it or not.

Cutting for Stone (2009)

In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

The Covenant of Water (2023)

And that is how he passed from this life to the next, without fanfare, with characteristic simplicity, fearless, opening his eyes that last time to make sure we were fine before he went on.

Cutting for Stone (2009)

Maybe it was written on my face that I'd become aware of human complexity - that's a kinder word than "deceit".

Cutting for Stone (2009)

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Beautiful objects are wrought by study through effort, but ugly things are reaped automatically without toil.

Democritus Freeman (1948)

True beauty dwells in deep retreats,
Whose veil is unremoved
Till heart with heart in concord beats,
And the lover is beloved.

William Wordsworth

The great artists are the ones who dare to entitle to beauty things so natural that when they're seen afterward, people say: Why did I never realize before that this too was beautiful?

André Gide The Immoralist (1902)

Beauty itself doth of itself persuade
The eyes of men without an orator.

William Shakespeare The Rape of Lucrece (1594)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Abraham Verghese (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.