Sermon quotes on appearances
Jane Austen
“But to appear happy when I am so miserable — Oh! who can require it?”
Sense and Sensibility
Harriet Beecher Stowe
So much has been said and sung of beautiful young girls, why doesn’t somebody wake up to the beauty of old women?
Hosea Ballou
It is easy to be beautiful; it is difficult to appear so.
Clement of Alexandria
It is not your outward appearance that you should beautify, but your soul, adorning it with good works.
Arthur Conan Doyle
Some people’s affability is more deadly than the violence of coarser souls.
The Adventure of the Illustrious Client
Quentin Crisp
Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It’s cheaper.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.
Matthew Henry
The flower of youth never appears more beautiful than when it bends toward the sun of righteousness.
Thomas a Kempis
A sure way of retaining the grace of heaven is to disregard outward appearances, and diligently to cultivate such things as foster amendment of life and fervor of soul, rather than to cultivate those qualities that seem most popular.
Abraham Lincoln
Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
In every walk of life each man puts on a personality and outward appearance so as to look what he wants to be thought; in fact you might say that society is entirely made up of assumed personalities.
Scottish Proverb
Chan eil breth le nochd; beairteach cridhe dh’fhaodadh a bhith fo bochd còta.
Do not judge by appearances; a rich heart may be under a poor coat.
William Shakespeare
“All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.”
The Merchant of Venice
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions.
Self-Reliance
Still Looking for inspiration?
Consider checking out our illustrations page on Appearances.