about beauty

“A beleza inexiste na própria matéria, ela é apenas um jogo de sombras e de claro e escuro surgido entre matérias. Creio que a beleza inexiste sem a sombra”. - Junichiro Tanizaki em Em Louvor às Sombras

“As névoas e o crepúsculo despertam a imaginação, pois tornam as imagens visuais incertas e ambíguas'‘ - Juhani Pallasmaa

To live content with small means.
To seek elegance rather than luxury,
    and refinement rather than fashion.
To be worthy not respectable,
    and wealthy not rich.
To study hard, think quietly, talk gently,
    act frankly, to listen to stars, birds, babes,
    and sages with open heart, to bear all cheerfully,
    do all bravely, await occasions, hurry

“Never are voices so beautiful as on a winter’s evening when dusk almost hides the body, and they seem to issue from nothingness with a note of intimacy seldom heard by day” - Virginia Woolf in Night and Day

“Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it” - Dona Tartt in The Secret History