20 Quotes from books that show what it really means to be beautiful

We grow up thinking we need to look beautiful to catch anyone’s attention, and then we spend years looking at yourselves, picking out everything that we think tells us that we’re not. But what we usually fail to remember is that beauty is more than just skin deep.

Being beautiful has nothing to do with being pretty, and constantly picking flaws in ourselves is a terrible example for young boys and girls growing up.

Here are 20 quotes from books that accurately demonstrate the truth of what it means to be beautiful.

1. “What you do, the way you think, makes you beautiful.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

2. “Sometimes people are beautiful.
Not in looks.
Not in what they say.
Just in what they are.”
― Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger

3. “To the people who love you, you are beautiful already. This is not because they’re blind to your shortcomings but because they so clearly see your soul. Your shortcomings then dim by comparison. The people who care about you are willing to let you be imperfect and beautiful, too.”
― Victoria Moran, Lit From Within: Tending Your Soul For Lifelong Beauty

4. “Chloe believe that beauty could be measured according to an objective standard, one she had simply failed to reach…I found Chloe excessively beautiful…The editor of Vogue might have had difficulty including photos of Chloe in an issue, but this was only a confirmation of the uniqueness that I managed to find in my girlfriend. I had animated her face with her soul.”
― Alain de Botton, On Love

5. “There is nothing more rare, nor more beautiful, than a woman being unapologetically herself; comfortable in her perfect imperfection. To me, that is the true essence of beauty.”
― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience

6. “Flawed, we’re truly interesting, truly memorable, and yes, truly beautiful.”
― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful

7. “Consider the fact that maybe…just maybe…beauty and worth aren’t found in a makeup bottle, or a salon-fresh hairstyle, or a fabulous outfit. Maybe our sparkle comes from somewhere deeper inside, somewhere so pure and authentic and REAL, it doesn’t need gloss or polish or glitter to shine.”
― Mandy Hale, The Single Woman: Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass

8. “Beauty is about being comfortable in your own skin. It’s about knowing and accepting who you are.”
― Ellen DeGeneres, Seriously… I’m Kidding

9. “Beauty is subjective. You know how sometimes what makes a person attractive is the way they make you laugh or how it seems like they can read your mind?”
― Kiera Cass, The Crown

10. “A pretty face may be enough to catch a man, but it takes character and good nature to hold him.”
― Thomas More, Utopia

11. “When you start to really know someone, all his physical characteristics start to disappear. You begin to dwell in his energy, recognize the scent of his skin. You see only the essence of the person, not the shell. That’s why you can’t fall in love with beauty. You can lust after it, be infatuated by it, want to own it. You can love it with your eyes and body but not your heart. And that’s why, when you really connect with a person’s inner self, any physical imperfections disappear, become irrelevant.”
― Lisa Unger, Beautiful Lies

12. “But even though she was attractive, there was something else about her that caught his eye. She was intelligent, he could sense that right away, and confident, too, as if she were able to move through life on her own terms. To him, these were the things that really mattered. Without them, beauty was nothing.”
― Nicholas Sparks, Message in a Bottle

13. “The pretty ones are usually unhappy. They expect everyone to be enamored of their beauty. How can a person be content when their happiness lies in someone else’s hands, ready to be crushed at any moment? Ordinary-looking people are far superior, because they are forced to actually work hard to achieve their goals, instead of expecting people to fall all over themselves to help them.”
― J. Cornell Michel, Jordan’s Brains: A Zombie Evolution

14. “Everyone will think I’m ugly.”
Tik Tok smiled. “That’s true. But we are a small village. We have narrow tastes. There’s no telling who else in the world would think you’re beautiful.”
― Jodi Lynn Anderson, Tiger Lily

15. “June has never looked more beautiful than she does now, unadorned and honest, vulnerable yet invincible.”
― Marie Lu, Legend

16. “Screw pretty. I’d rather be strong. Pretty fades over time. Strength gets you through the bad shit.”
― Thea Harrison, Oracle’s Moon