E is for EYE

That fine part of our construction, the eye, seems as much the receptacle and seat of our passions as the mind itself; and at least it is the outward portal to introduce them to the house within, or rather the common thoroughfare to let our affections pass in and out.

Joseph Addison



In her eyes a thought
Grew sweeter and sweeter, deepening like the dawn,
A mystical forewarning.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Pythagoras



The eyes are the amulets of the mind.

William R. Alger



A gray eye is a sly eye,
And roguish is a brown one;
Turn full upon me thy eye,--
Ah, how its wavelets drown one!
A blue eye is a true eye;
Mysterious is a dark one,
Which flashes like a spark-sun!
A black eye is the best one.

William R. Alger,



Ah! the soft starlight of virgin eyes.

Honore de Balzac




I need no dictionary of quotations to remind me that the eyes are the windows of the soul.

Max Beerbohm



The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.
The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one:
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

Francis William Bourdillon,



Folded eyes see brighter colors than the open ever do.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning



The learned compute that seven hundred and seven millions of millions of vibrations have penetrate the eye before the eye can distinguish the tints of a violet.

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton,



Heart on her lips, and soul within her eyes,
Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies.

Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron




In every object there is inexhaustible meaning; the eye sees in it what the eye brings means of seeing.

Thomas Carlyle,



The eyes, like sentinels, hold the highest place in the body.
[Lat., Oculi, tanquam, speculatores, altissimum locum obtinent.]

Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero)



My eyes make pictures, when they are shut.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, A Day Dream



Eyes, that displaces
The neighbor diamond, and out-faces
That sun-shine by their own sweet graces.

Richard Crashaw,



Not in mine eyes alone in Paradise.

Dante ("Dante Alighieri




One of the most wonderful things in nature is a glance; it transcends speech; it is the bodily symbol of identity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson



People forget that it is the eye which makes the horizon, and the rounding mind's eye which makes this or that man a type or representative of humanity with the name of hero or saint.

Ralph Waldo Emerson



Say, what other metre is it
Than the meeting of the eyes?
Nature poureth into nature
Through the channels of that feature
Riding on the ray of sight,
Fleeter far than whirlwinds go,
Or for service, or delight,
Hearts to hearts their meaning show.

Ralph Waldo Emerson



Some eyes threaten like a loaded and levelled pistol, and others are as insulting as hissing or kicking; some have no more expression than blueberries, while others are as deep as a well which you can fall into.

Ralph Waldo Emerson




The eyes indicate the antiquity of the soul.

Ralph Waldo Emerson



To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again.

Ralph Waldo Emerson



Eyes are bold as lions,--roving, running, leaping, here and there, far and near. They speak all languages. They wait for no introduction; they are no Englishmen; ask no leave of age or rank; they respect neither property nor riches, neither learning nor power, nor virtue, nor sex, but intrude, and come again, and go through and through you in a moment of time. What inundation of life and thought is discharged from one soul into another through them!

Ralph Waldo Emerson,



Among the blind, the squinter rules.
[Lat., Inter caecos regnat strabus.]

Desiderius Gerhard Erasmus




In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
[Lat., In regione caecorum rex est luscus.]

Desiderius Gerhard Erasmus



It is well known that a one-eyed man can rule among the blind.
[Lat., Scitum est inter caecos luscum requare posse.]

Desiderius Gerhard Erasmus



The eyes of other people are the eyes that ruin us.

Benjamin Franklin



Eyes so transparent,
That through them one sees the soul.
[Lat., Ils sont si transparents qu'ils laissent voir votre ame.]

Pierre Jules Theophile Gautier



Tell me, eyes, what 'tis ye're seeking;
For ye're saying something sweet,
Fit the ravish'd ear to greet.
Eloquently, softly speaking.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe




He travels with his eyes.

Walter Harte



I everywhere am thinking
Of thy blue eyes' sweet smile;
A sea of blue thoughts is spreading
Over my heart the while.

Heinrich Heine



The eyes have one language every where.
[The eyes have one language everywhere.]

George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum



Men trust their ears less than their eyes.

Herodotus ("Father of History")



Those eyes that were so bright, love,
Have now a dimmer shine;
But what they've lost in light, love,
Is what they gave to mine.
And still those orbs reflect, love,
The beams of former hours,
That ripen'd all my joys, love,
And tinted all my flowers.

Thomas Hood



Those true eyes
Too pure and too honest in aught to disguise
The sweet soul shining through them.

Lord Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton



A heaven of dreams in her large lotus eyes, darkly divine.

Gerald Massey



Eyes of most unholy blue!

Thomas Moore



Those eyes, whose light seem'd rather given
To be ador'd than to adore--
Such eyes as may have looked from heaven,
But ne'er were raised to it before!

Thomas Moore



Thou my star at the stars are gazing
Would I were heaven that I might behold thee with many eyes.

Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus



One eye-witness is of more weight than ten hearsays. Those who hear, speak of shat they have heard; whose who see, know beyond mistake.
[Lat., Pluris est oculatus testis unus, quam auriti decem.
Qui audiunt, audita dicunt; qui vident, plane sciunt.]

Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus



Why has not man a microscopic eye?
For this plain reason, Man is not a Fly.
Say, what the use, were finer optics giv'n,
T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n?

Alexander Pope



Bright as the sun her eyes the gazers strike,
And, like the sun, they shine on all alike.

Alexander Pope



The eye is the window of the soul, the mouth the door. The intellect, the will, are seen in the eye; the emotions, sensibilities, and affections, in the mouth. The animals look for man's intentions right into his eyes. Even a rat, when you hunt him and bring him to bay, looks you in the eye.

Hiram Powers



The eyes are the pioneers that first announce the soft tale of love.

Sextus Aurelius Propertius



Whatever of goodness emanates from the soul, gathers its soft halo in the eyes; and if the heart be a lurking place of crime, the eyes are sure to betray the secret. A beautiful eye makes silence eloquent, a kind eye makes contradiction assent, an enraged eye makes beauty a deformity; so you see, forsooth, the little organ plays no inconsiderable, if not a dominant, part.

Frederick Saunders



O, the eye's light is a noble gift of heaven! All beings live from light; each fair created thing, the very plants, turn with a joyful transport to the light.

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller



Eyes will not see when the heart wishes them to be blind. Desire conceals truth as darkness does the earth.

Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)



A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind.

William Shakespeare



Sometimes from her eyes I did receive fair speechless messages.

William Shakespeare



Think ye by gazing on each other's eyes
To multiply your lovely selves?

Percy Bysshe Shelley



Long while I sought to what I might compare
Those powerful eyes, which light my dark spirit;
Yet found I nought on earth, to which I dare
Resemble th' image of their goodly light
Not to the sun, for they do shine by night;
Nor to the moon, for they are changed never;
Nor to the stars, for they have purer sight;
Nor to the fire, for they consume not ever;
Nor to the lightning, for they still persever;
Nor to the diamond, for they are more tender;
Nor unto crystal, for nought may they sever;
Nor unto glass, such baseness might offend her;
Then to the Maker's self the likest be;
Whose light doth lighten all that here we see.

Edmund Spenser



It is wonderful indeed to consider how many objects the eye is fitted to take in at once, and successively in an instant, and at the same time to make a judgment of their position, figure, and color. It watches against our dangers, guides our steps, and lets in all the visible objects, whose beauty and variety instruct and delight.

Sir Richard Steele



Were you the earth dear love, and I the skies
My love would shine on you like to the sun
And look upon you with ten thousand eyes
Till heaven waxed blind and till the world were done.

Joshua Sylvester, Love's Omnipotence



The eye strays not while under the guidance of reason.

Syrus (Publilius Syrus)



Eyes not down-dropped nor over-bright, but fed with the clear-pointed flame of chastity.

Lord Alfred Tennyson



Pure vestal thoughts in the translucent fane of her still spirit.

Lord Alfred Tennyson



Her eyes are homes of silent prayer.

Lord Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam (XXXII)




A pair of bright eyes with a dozen glances suffice to subdue a man; to enslave him, and inflame; to make him even forget; they dazzle him so that the past becomes straightway dim to him; and he so prizes them that he would give all his life to possess them. What is the fond love of dearest friends compared to his treasure? Is memory as strong as expectancy, fruition as hunger, gratitude as desire?

William Makepeace Thackeray



How blue were Ariadne's eyes
When, from the sea's horizon line,
At eve, she raised them on the skies!
My Psyche, bluer far are thine.

Sir Aubrey de Vere, Psyche



Deep brown eyes running over with glee;
Blue eyes are pale, and gray eyes are sober;
Bonnie brown eyes are the eye's for me.

Constance Fenimore Woolson