What Is the Relationship Between Beauty and Habit? Does Custom Encompass Beauty?

Beauty is a treasure to be sought and discovered. People’s habits and errors do not alter its true nature. No one can define beauty or lay down rules for it on the basis of custom; rather, beauty’s inner essence must be discovered and its principles drawn out.

Artistic styles are beautiful to the extent that they embody beauty. Indeed, some styles of art are expressions of beauty; the more powerfully they express it, the more beautiful they are.

Individual and collective perspectives have no bearing on what is beautiful or unbeautiful. A true recognition of beauty—whether individual or collective—can serve as its measure. In fact, the more fully beauty’s mysteries are discovered, revealed, and articulated in theory and practice, the more beauty comes to light.