But beauty was not everything. Beauty had this penalty—it came too readily, came too completely. It stilled life—froze it.
 Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (1927). copy citation

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Author Virginia Woolf
Source To the Lighthouse
Topic appearance beauty
Date 1927
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100101.txt

Context

“Yes, thought Lily, looking intently, I must have seen her look like that, but not in grey; nor so still, nor so young, nor so peaceful. The figure came readily enough. She was astonishingly beautiful, as William said. But beauty was not everything. Beauty had this penalty—it came too readily, came too completely. It stilled life—froze it. One forgot the little agitations; the flush, the pallor, some queer distortion, some light or shadow, which made the face unrecognisable for a moment and yet added a quality one saw for ever after. It was simpler to smooth that all out under the cover of beauty.” source

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