Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
Meaning: Perception of beauty is subjective and personal.
Origin: The wording comes from Molly Bawn (1878), a novel by the Irish writer Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, who published as "The Duchess." The thought is older: Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost says that beauty is bought by judgment of the eye.
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
- French: La beauté est dans l'œil de celui qui regarde (literally: Beauty is in the eye of the one who looks)
- Spanish: La belleza está en los ojos del que mira (literally: Beauty is in the eyes of the one who looks)
- Japanese: 蓼食う虫も好き好き (Tade kuu mushi mo sukizuki) (literally: Some bugs even prefer bitter knotweed)
- German: Schönheit liegt im Auge des Betrachters (literally: Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder)
More proverbs about Human Nature
- The bigger they are, the harder they fall — Powerful people suffer greater consequences when they fail.
- Beauty is only skin deep — Physical appearance is superficial; character matters more.
- East or west, home is best — No matter where you go, home remains the best place.
- Variety is the spice of life — Diversity makes life interesting.
- Speak of the devil — Said when someone appears just as they're being discussed.
- You can't please everyone — It's impossible to satisfy every person all the time.
From our untranslatable words
- Khalyava — Something good got for free and without effort — and, strictly, something you were never…
- Beloruchka — Someone who dodges dirty or hard work — a person whose hands stay conspicuously clean.
- Zapoi — A bender running for days, in which a person drops out of ordinary life entirely.