Beauty is in the eye of the beholder  

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The Birth of Venus (detail), a 1486 painting by Sandro Botticelli
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The Birth of Venus (detail), a 1486 painting by Sandro Botticelli

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"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is a proverbial phrase which means that the evaluation of a thing or a person depends on perception of the person who sees and considers.

The idea behind the phrase is very old: Theocritus in Idyll says "γὰρ ἕρωṯί ρολλάκίς‥ṯὰ μή καλὰ καλὰ ρέϕανṯαί", "for in the eyes of love that which is not beautiful often seems beautiful."

And David Hume in Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, "Beauty, properly speaking, lyes‥in the Sentiment or Taste of the Reader."

In 1968, Charles Rembar added to it: "Pornography is in the 'groin' of the beholder."

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