I once thought my grandmother made that up so I wouldn't feel bad because my cousin was prettier. Later I saw the truth in her words - outer beauty is nice but inner beauty is more important.
This file has things pertaining to both inner and outer beauty - including Clothes, Playing Dress Up and Freckles. Also see Hair, Haircuts and Hats, Shoes, Eyes and Ears (includes Jewelry) and Dieting.

Page Toppers

Quotes

• Any and all compliments can be handled by simply saying "Why, thank you" (though it helps if you say it with a Southern accent).
• The average woman would rather have beauty than brains, because the average man can see better than he can think.
• Be careless in your dress if you will, but keep a tidy soul. (Mark Twain)
• Beauty changes with the passing seasons except in the heart where the true beauty remains.
• Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. (Kahlil Gibran)
• Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
• Beauty is in the Heart of the Beholder
• Beauty is only skin deep, but it's a valuable asset if you're poor or haven't any sense. (Kin Hubbard)
• Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. (John Keats, from Ode on a Grecian Urn)
• Behavior is a mirror in which everyone displays his own image. (Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe)
• Being pretty on the inside means you don't hit your brother and you eat all your peas - that's what my grandma taught me. (Elizabeth Heller)
• Can you imagine a world without men? No crime and lots of happy fat women. (Marion Smith)
• Cathy (looking at photo album): "Look how pretty I was then. I thought I was so ugly."
  Mom: "I told you you were pretty, Cathy!"
  Cathy: "I know you did...But I wouldn't listen. I though you were just being my mother. I let insecurity control me and ruin my youth! Look at me, I was a beautiful little girl."
  Mom: "Just as you are now!"
  Cathy: "Now?? Oh, please. Now I'm old and wrinkly!"
  Mom (thinking to her self): "A mother's brilliance only truly shines in retrospect."
• The criterion of true beauty is that it increases on examination; if false, that it lessens. There is therefore, something in true beauty that corresponds with right reason, and is not the mere creation of fancy. (Lord Greville)
• Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.
• Don't worry about wrinkles, they're just antique smiles.
• Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. (Confucius)
• Everything is Beautiful in its Own Way
• Exuberance is beauty. (William Blake)
• A friend's eye is a good mirror. (Irish Proverb)
• A girdle is a matter of bind over matter.
• How goodness heightens beauty! (Hannah More)
• It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is is essential is invisible to the eye. (from The Little Prince)
• It's not what you look like on the outside, but what is in your heart that matters.
• I've never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful.
• A joyful heart is a woman's best cosmetic.
• Let us live for the beauty of our own reality. (Tim Robbins)
• A lot of good-looking faces are wasted on ugly people.
• Love is a great beautifier (Louisa May Alcott)
• Manicurists add polish to life.
• Mother to adolescent daughter: It's common at your age to hate your body. But as you get older, you learn instead to hate other people's.
• Nylons give you a run for your money.
• Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important. (Janet Lane)
• Only in a world of love can we unfold and bloom.
• Outer beauty is a reflection of inner beauty
• Scars: Tattoos with better stories.
• She felt...well, not beautiful, but something better: knowing she didn't have to be. (Mary C. Pangborn)
• Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty - they merely move it from their faces into their hearts. (Martin Buxbaum)
• That which is striking and beautiful is not always good; but that which is good is always beautiful. (Ninon De L'Enclos)
• There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect. (G.K. Chesterton)
• There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness. (Lady Marguerite Gardiner Blessington)
• There's a difference between beauty and charm. A beautiful woman is one I notice. A charming woman is one who notices me. (John Erskine)
• A thing of beauty is a joy forever
• Time may be a great healer, but it's also a lousy beautician.
• To me, fair friend, you never can be old. For as you were when first your eye I eyed. Such seems your beauty still. (William Shakespeare)
• Ugliness is in a way superior to beauty because it lasts. (Serge Gainsbourg)
• We only find beauty if we carry it in our hearts.
• What creates the beauty of the world is the love we have for it. (Roma Ryan)
• A woman doesn't find it contradictory to complain about not having anything to wear and about not having enough closet space in the same conversation.
• You can take no credit for beauty at sixteen. But if you are beautiful at sixty, it will be your soul's own doing. (Marie Carmichael Stopes)
• You don't love someone because they are beautiful, they are beautiful because you love them.

Fashion Quotes

• A blond in a red dress can do without introductions - but not without a bodyguard. (Rona Jaffe)
• Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes. (Henry David Thoreau)
• Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new. (Henry David Thoreau)
• Fashion fades - style is eternal. (Yves Saint Laurent)
• Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
• Fashion is what you adopt when you don't know who you are. (Quentin Crisp)
• Fashions come and go; bad taste is timeless.
• I base most of my fashion sense on what doesn't itch. (Gilda Radner)
• I know what Victoria's Secret is. The secret is that nobody older than 30 can fit into their stuff.
• I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes. (Yves Saint Laurent)
• If men can run the world, why can't they stop wearing neckties? How intelligent is it to start the day by tying a little noose around your neck? (Linda Ellerbee)
• If women dressed for men, the stores wouldn't sell much - just an occasional sun visor
• Know first who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly. (Euripides)
• No one in the world needs a mink coat but a mink.
• The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize. (Robert Harling)
• People seldom notice old clothes if you wear a big smile. (Lee Mildon)
• Remember that always dressing in understated good taste is the same as playing dead. (Susan Catherine)
• They look quite promising in the shop; and not entirely without hope when I get them back into my wardrobe. But then, when I put them on they tend to deteriorate with a very strange rapidity and one feels so sorry for them. (Joyce Grenfell)
• Those who make their dress a principal part of themselves, will, in general, become of no more value than their dress. (William Hazlitt)
• Whatever kind of look you were going for, you missed.
• When in doubt, wear red. (Bill Blass)

My Inside-Self

(Rachel Field)

Everybody Says

(Dorothy Aldis)

Everybody says
I look just like my mother.
Everybody says
I'm the image of Aunt Bee.
Everybody says
My nose if like my father's,
But I want to look like me.

Best

(Rose Fyleman)

from Any Man of Mine

(Shania Twain)

Any man of mine better be proud of me
Even when I'm ugly he still better love me
And I can be late for a date that's fine
But he better be on time

Any man of mine'll say it fits just right
When last year's dress is just a little too tight
And anything I do or say better be okay
When I have a bad hair day

Well any man of mine better disagree
When I say another woman's lookin' better than me
And when I cook him dinner and I burn it black
He better say, mmmm, I like it like that

Please Look a Little Deeper

Please don't judge me by my face.
By my religion or my race.
Please don't laugh at what I wear.
Or how I look or do my hair.

Please look a little deeper-
Way down deep inside.
And although you may not see it.
I have a lot to hide.

Behind my clothes the secrets lie.
Behind my smile, I softly cry.
Please look a little deeper.
And maybe you will see,
The lonely little girl
That lives inside of me.

Please listen carefully to her-
She'll show that she's insecure.
Please try to be a friend to her
And show her that you care.

Please just get to know her
And maybe you will see
That if you just look deep enough.
You'll find the real me.

from Not Pretty Enough

(Kasey Chambers)

Am I not pretty enough? Is my heart too broken?
Do I cry too much? Am I too outspoken?
Don't I make you laugh? Should I try it harder?
Why do you see right through me?

I live, I breathe, I let it rain on me,
I sleep, I wake, I try hard not to break.
I crave, I love, I've waited long enough,
I try as hard as I can.

I laugh, I feel, I make believe it's real,
I fall, I freeze, I pray down on my knees.
I hope, I stand, I take it like a man,
I try as hard as I can.

Why do you see, why do you see,
why do you see right through me?

Beautiful Women:

• Age 3:
  She looks at herself and sees a Queen.
• Age 8:
  She looks at herself and sees Cinderella.
• Age 15:
  She looks at herself and sees an Ugly Step-Sister
  (Mom, I can't go to school looking like this!)
• Age 20:
  She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly"
  but decides to fix herself up as best she can and go out anyway.
• Age 30:
  She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly"
  and decides she doesn't have time to fix it but she's going out anyway.
• Age 40:
  She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly"
  but says, "At least I'm clean" and goes out anyway.
• Age 50:
  She looks at herself and sees "I am" and goes wherever she wants to go.
• Age 60:
  She looks at herself and thinks of all those who can't even see themselves in the mirror anymore
  and goes out and conquers the world.
• Age 70:
  She looks at herself and sees wisdom, laughter, and ability, goes out and enjoys life.
• Age 80:
  doesn't bother to look. Just puts on a purple hat and goes out to have fun with the world.

...Maybe we should all grab that purple hat earlier.

Beauty Tips

(Audrey Hepburn)

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anybody.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.
The beauty of a woman is seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.
True beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.
It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows.
And the beauty of a woman only grows with passing years.

At Every Party, Someone Has to Say Something Outrageous

(Erma Bombeck)

I know you're all familiar with the woman at the party who gets attention by saying outrageous things. The one who, if Mary announced, "I'm expecting a Savior," would say, "Me too!" Well, this person proclaimed the other night that by March everyone would be wearing miniskirts again.
Can you imagine what it's like to have 50 women suck in their breaths at the same time? All the hors d'oeuvres were airborne for a full three minutes.
For a while, we talked among ourselves of what it was like when miniskirts lived among us.
You could never pick up an object that had fallen on the floor unless you were (a) in the room alone (b) were closely surrounded by three walls (c) had been married to the other occupant of the room for at least 10 years.
When you were offered a chair you had to turn up the thermostat on your underwear, slide into it from front to back and make sure there was always a napkin, handbag or pillow nearby to cover your knees.
Finding your 8-inch slip was an exercise in aerobics. Once I remembered going through an entire afternoon, only to be told in a whisper, "Your blouse is hanging out from under your skirt."
Getting into a car and driving in a miniskirt would have gotten most of us arrested, had we not been home-room mothers, car-pooling children to a bible study meeting.
"You have to admit," I said, "For the last couple of years, it's been good. Sweaters with sleeves that would have slip-covered Iowa. Over-blouses with belts that no one ever saw. Full skirts that swirled around our ankles and baggy jackets that gave no hint of what was hidden underneath."
One woman giggled, "Last year, I even told my Jane Fonda video to stick it in her ear."
"Why don't they want us to be happy?" said one of my friends. There was a moment of silence when one of the women said, "How about crossing our legs once more in comfort for old time sake."
Everyone in the room crossed their legs. We would have to remember it for a long time.

Playing Dress Up

Pretending

(Myra Cohn Livingston)

Dress Up

(Wendy Silva)

Lipstick on my lips
and blush on my cheeks.
This is a game I love to play,
and one I could play for weeks.

Wearing mother's big black shoes
and necklace of white pearl,
which comes complete with a dress
that flows as I twirl.
A special purse that I have filled with
so many treasures it's hard for me to hold.
And I must not forget a big
fuzzy coat, just in case it's cold.

My dress-up would not be through
without a set of keys,
and with this my wardrobe is complete
and I am very pleased.

Freckles

• A face without freckles is like a night without stars
• Freckles are angel kisses.
• Freckles are fairy's kisses.
• Freckles are like little smudges of chocolate.
• Freckles are sun kisses.
• I didn't earn my vivid imagination - it has been as much a part of me as freckles and short sight. (JK Rowling)
• I picked Casey Stengel on the strength of his freckles and blond hair. (Larry Sutton, the man who originally scouted Stengel)
• If you're asking whether I intentionally mess up my hair, no, I don't. And certain things, like my freckles, they're just there. I don't do anything consciously. I suppose I could get contact lenses. I suppose I could comb my hair more often. (Bill Gates)
• Josie: Hey Anne. How do you spell "freckles"
  Diana: Hey Josie. How do you spell "ugly"? (from Anne of Green Gables)
• These are not freckles, they are the rusty ends of my steel nerves! (Dutch saying)
• These aren't freckles...they're a bunch of teeny, tiny, little tans.

from Pippi Longstocking

(Astrid Lindgren)

The children came to a perfume shop. In the show window was a large jar of freckle salve, and beside the jar was a sign which read: DO YOU SUFFER FROM FRECKLES?
"What does the sign say?" asked Pippi. She didn't read very well because she didn't want to go to school as other children did.
"It says 'Do you suffer from freckles?'" said Annika.
"Does it indeed," said Pippi thoughtfully. "Well a civil question deserves a civil answer. Let's go in."
She opened the door and entered the shop, quickly followed by Tommy and Annika. An elderly lady stood back of the counter. Pippi went right up to her. "No," she said decidedly.
"What is it you want," asked the lady.
"No," said Pippi once more.
"I don't understand what you mean," said the lady.
"No I don't suffer from freckles," said Pippi.
Then the lady understood but she took one look at Pippi and burst out, "But my dear child, your whole face is covered with freckles!"
"I know it," said Pippi, "but I don't suffer from them. I love them. Good morning."

What's Prettier Than Freckles?

An elderly woman and her little grandson, whose face was sprinkled with bright freckles,spent the day at the zoo. Lots of children were waiting in line to get their cheeks painted by a local artist who was decorating them with tiger paws.
"You've got so many freckles, there's no place to paint!" a girl in the line said to the little fella. Embarrassed, the little boy dropped his head.
His grandmother knelt down next to him. "I love your freckles. When I was a little girl I always wanted freckles," she said, while tracing her finger across the child's cheek. "Freckles are beautiful."
The boy looked up, "Really?"
"Of course," said the grandmother. "Why just name me one thing that's prettier than freckles."
The little boy thought for a moment, peered intensely into his grandma's face, and softly whispered, Wrinkles."