There is such a thing as too much beauty in a woman and it is often a burden as crippling as homeliness and far more dangerous. It takes much luck and integrity to survive the gift of perfect beauty, and its impermanence is its most cunning betrayal.
Interpretation
Excessive beauty in a woman can be burdensome and difficult to navigate, often leading to challenges despite societal admiration.
This quote by Pat Conroy suggests that while beauty can be seen as a gift, it can also carry a heavy burden for women. The pressures and expectations associated with physical appearance can be as crippling as the stigma of being unattractive. Conroy highlights the transient nature of beauty, indicating that its impermanence is a betrayal that can lead to significant emotional challenges, underscoring the complex relationship society has with beauty.
In practice
In a discussion about societal standards, you might say, 'As Pat Conroy pointed out, there is such a thing as too much beauty.'
It enclosed us in its laceries as we watched the moon spill across the Atlantic like wine from an overturned glass. With the light all around us, we felt secret in that moon-infused water like pearls forming in the soft tissues of oysters.
A recipe is a story that ends with a good meal.
Every woman I had ever met who walked through the world appraised and classified by an extraordinary physicality had also received the keys to an unbearable solitude. It was the coefficient of their beauty, the price they had to pay.
Teach them the quiet words of kindness, to live beyond themselves. Urge them toward excellence, drive them toward gentleness, pull them deep into yourself, pull them upward toward manhood, but softly like an angel arranging clouds. Let your spirit move through them softly.
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The most powerful words in English are 'Tell me a story,' words that are intimately related to the complexity of history, the origins of language, the continuity of the species, the taproot of our humanity, our singularity, and art itself.
I'm proud of my wrinkles. They give my face character. As an actress, you mess with that at your peril.
Look, whenever I hear or read I’m beautiful, I simply don’t understand it … I’m certainly not beautiful in any conventional way. I didn't make my career on beauty.
It matters more what's in a woman's face than what's on it.
I never quite understand the way society decides who is beautiful and who is not. But an open face and a capacity for kindness always feel like reliable signifiers to me.
Everything is beautiful. We have all this beauty in the world and all we have to do is reach out and touch it, it is all there and all ours for the taking." -- Cecilia to Henry Chinaski, liberty taken changing past tense to present tense (173)
When I was young and beautiful, I never appeared on the cover of a magazine.
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