# Eyes

Eyes are the organs of vision.
Arranged alphabetically by author or source: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations · See also · External links

## A

* The eye comes into existence first when man comes into existence.
** Aitareya Brahmana, AB III 2 . Quoted from Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Chapter 8
* In her eyes a thought Grew sweet and sweeter, deepening like the dawn— A mystical forewarning!
** Thomas Bailey Aldrich, "Pythagoras", Pampinea and Other Poems (New York: Budd & Carleton, 1861), p. 19.
* 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, "Mirtsa Schaffy on Eyes", Poetry of the Orient (1865), p. 228.
* Not in mine eyes alone is Paradise.
** Dante Alighieri, Paradise (c. 1308-1321), XVIII. 21.
* Parean l'occhiaje anella senza gemme.
** Their eyes seem'd rings from whence the gems were gone.
** Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio (1321), XXIII. 31.

## B

* There are whole veins of diamonds in thine eyes, Might furnish crowns for all the Queens of earth.
** Philip James Bailey, Festus (1813), scene A Drawing Room.
* Dark eyes adventure bring; the blue serene Do promise Paradise: and yours are green.
** Hilaire Belloc, "On Eyes", epigram in essay "On 'And'" in On (1923), London, Methuen, p. 181. Also in Collected Verse (1958).
* The night has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies With the dying sun.
** Francis William Bourdillon, "Light" (popularly known as "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes"), published in The Spectator (October 1873).
* The learned compute that seven hundred and seven millions of millions of vibrations have penetrated the eye before the eye can distinguish the tints of a violet.
** Edward Bulwer-Lytton, What Will He Do With It? (1858), Book VIII, Chapter II.
* The Chinese say that we Europeans have one eye, they themselves two, all the world else is blinde.
** Robert Burton, Anatomy of a Melancholy (1621), Ed. 6, p. 40.
* Her eye (I'm very fond of handsome eyes) Was large and dark, suppressing half its fire Until she spoke, then through its soft disguise Flash'd an expression more of pride than ire, And love than either; and there would arise, A something in them which was not desire, But would have been, perhaps, but for the soul, Which struggled through and chasten'd down the whole.
** Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto I, Stanza 60.
* With eyes that look'd into the very soul— * * * * * * Bright—and as black and burning as a coal.
** Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto IV, Stanza 94.

## C

* In every object there is inexhaustible meaning; the eye sees in it what the eye brings means of seeing.
** Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution. A History (1837), Volume I, p. 5. People's ed. Heroes and Hero-Worship, The Hero as Poet; Miscellaneous Essays, Volume VI; Review of Vernhagen von Ense's Memoirs, P. 241. Same idea in Goethe's Zahme Xeniem, III.

## D

* Jehovah is in his holy temple. Jehovah’s throne is in the heavens. His own eyes see, his watchful eyes examine the sons of men.
** David, Psalm 11:4, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
* Turn my eyes away from worthless things.
** David, Psalm 119:37, NIV

## E

* And I have known the eyes already, known them all—
    The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
    And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
    When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
    Then how should I begin
    To spit our the butt-ends of my days and ways?
    And how should I presume?
   * T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1917)

## F

* The young watch television twenty-four hours a day, they don't read and they rarely listen. This incessant bombardment of images has developed a hypertrophied eye condition that's turning them into a race of mutants.
** Federico Fellini, in I'm a Born Liar: A Fellini Lexicon (2003), "Younger Generation"
* Look babies in your eyes, my pretty sweet one.
** John Fletcher, The Loyal Subject, (licensed 16 November 1618; revised c. 1633; published 1647).

## H

* The concupiscence of the eyes touches the soul at a higher level than that of the flesh, and is consequently even more subtle and dangerous.
** Frederic Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A Study in Ascetical Theology (1960), p. 10.
* The eyes have one language everywhere.
** George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum (1651).

## J

* For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
** John the Evangelist, 1 John 2:16 NIV
* Before the throne was something resembling a glassy sea, like crystal. In the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures that were full of eyes in front and behind. The first living creature was like a lion, and the second living creature was like a young bull, and the third living creature had a face like a man’s, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle.
** John the Evangelist, Revelation 4:6–7, NWT.

## K

* They say ‘The eye came; it was a serpent; thus did poison come to the priests; he used these (verses) connected with (Soma) the purifying, and repelling poison, in praise’.
** Kausitaki Brahmana 29, 1. Quoted from Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Chapter 8

## L

* The lamp of the body is your eye. When your eye is focused, your whole body is also bright; but when it is envious, your body is also dark.
** Gospel of Luke 11:34, NWT
* Obi-Wan Kenobi: Your eyes can deceive you, don’t trust them.
** George Lucas, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope as quoted in Your Eyes Can Deceive You New Scientist by Roxanne Khamsi, (20 November 2006).
* Anyone who injures their neighbor is to be injured in the same manner: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury.
** Leviticus 24:19-20 NIV

## M

* The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 22 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness... 23
** Matthew, Chapter 6, New King James Version
* Those true eyes Too pure and too honest in aught to disguise The sweet soul shining through them.
** Owen Meredith (Lord Lytton), Lucile (1860), Part II, Canto II, Stanza 3.
* When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, And that one talent which is death to hide Lodged with me useless.
** John Milton, On His Blindness (1652).

## P

* Which eyes should I look for, to find the ultimate unreasoned answer?
** Suman Pokhrel, Before Making Decision
* The intensity in Paras's eye, burns my pen as I write
** Anthony, In Love
* I know you'll speak no truth at this time. I've to be guided solely by your silence, your eyes and the inaudible appeals of your heart.
** Suman Pokhrel, Between Rainbow and Melody
* Eyes that obstruct the road can be removed but what happens when hearts block the passage?
** Suman Pokhrel, While Parting
* The dream too thinks twice, gets filtered to go soft to be seated on children's eyes.
** Suman Pokhrel, Children
* 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, An Essay on Man (1733-34), Epistle I, line 193.
* Bright as the sun her eyes the gazers strike, And, like the sun, they shine on all alike.
** Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (1712), Canto II, line 13.
* Her eyes were grey as mountain lakes Where dream of shadow stirs and breaks.
** May Probyn, "Soapsuds", line 30, in Poems (London: W. Satchell & Co., 1881), p. 50.

## R

* The eye projects and focuses the inner image (idea) onto the physical world in the same manner that a motion picture camera transfers an image onto a screen. The mouth creates words. The ears create sound. The difficulty in understanding this principle is due to the fact that we’ve taken it for granted that the image and sound already exist for the senses to interpret. Actually the senses are the channels of creation by which idea is projected into material expression.
** Jane Roberts, The Seth Material, p. 13.

## S

* Who can look into the eyes of a dog or an ape and not feel kinship; who can see a cat stretch and yawn and not sense deep relation?
** Carl Safina, A Sea Ethic: Floating the Ark. Blue Ocean Institute (2005). (5 pages; quote from p. 3)
* Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is wing'd Cupid blind.
** William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I, sc. 1, ln. 234.
* Thou tell'st me there is murder in mine eye; 'Tis pretty, sure, and very probable, That eyes, that are the frail'st and softest things, Who shut their coward gates on atomies, Should be call'd tyrants, butchers, murderers!
** William Shakespeare, As You Like It (c.1599-1600), Act III, scene 5, line 10.
* Faster than his tongue Did make offence his eye did heal it up.
** William Shakespeare, As You Like It (c.1599-1600), Act III, scene 5, line 116.
* An eye like Mars, to threaten and command.
** William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act III, scene 4, line 57.
* The image of a wicked heinous fault Lives in his eye: that close aspect of his Does show the mood of a much troubled breast.
** William Shakespeare, King John (1598), Act IV, scene 2, line 71.
* You have seen Sunshine and rain at once. * * * those happy smilets, That play'd on her ripe lip, seem'd not to know What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence, As pearls from diamonds dropp'd.
** William Shakespeare, King Lear (1608), Act IV, scene 3, line 19.
* For where is any author in the world Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?
** William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost (c. 1595-6), Act IV, scene 3, line 312.
* A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind.
** William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost (c. 1595-6), Act IV, scene 3, line 334.
* Sometimes from her eyes I did receive fair speechless messages.
** William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act I, scene 1, line 163.
* I see how thine eye would emulate the diamond: thou hast the right archèd beauty of the brow.
** William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor (c. 1597; published 1602), Act III, scene 3, line 58.
* I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by daylight.
** William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99), Act II, scene 1, line 85.
* Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes.
** William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99), Act III, scene 1, line 51.
* Her eyes, like marigolds, had sheath'd their light; And, canopied in darkness, sweetly lay, Till they might open to adorn the day.
** William Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece (1594), line 397.
* Her eyes in heaven Would through the airy region stream so bright, That birds would sing and think it were not night.
** William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1597), Act II, scene 2, line 20.
* Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye Than twenty of their swords.
** William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1597), Act II, scene 2, line 71.
* If I could write the beauty of your eyes, And in fresh numbers number all your graces, The age to come would say, "This poet lies; Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces."
** William Shakespeare, Sonnet XVII.
* The fringed curtains of thine eye advance, And say what thou seest yond.
** William Shakespeare, The Tempest (c. 1610-1612), Act I, scene 2, line 407.
* Her two blue windows faintly she up-heaveth, Like the fair sun, when in his fresh array He cheers the morn, and all the earth relieveth; And as the bright sun glorifies the sky, So is her face illumin'd with her eye.
** William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis (1593), line 482.
* But hers, which through the crystal tears gave light, Shone like the moon in water seen by night.
** William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis (1593), line 491.
* Black brows they say Become some women best, so that there be not Too much hair there, but in a semicircle Or a half-moon made with a pen.
** William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale (c. 1610-11), Act II, scene 1, line 8.
* I don't know why, those tear-filled eyes felt very familiar to me.
** Sanu Sharma, Bhaujoo
* I can read and see the words that you have confined behind the wall of your lips in the expression on your face and in the gaze of your eyes.
** Sanu Sharma, Pharak
* Whether you want, to break free or connect, it's your choice. But with great courage, I locked my eyes with yours.
** Sanu Sharma, quoted by Goodreads
* When you look into eyes, forget about romance, creation, and the windows into the soul. With their molecules, genes, and tissues derived from microbes, jellyfish, worms, and flies, you see an entire menagerie.
** Neil Shubin, Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body.
* The sight of you is good for sore eyes.
** Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation (c. 1738), Dialog. I.

## T

* Her eyes are homes of silent prayer.
** Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H. (1849), XXXII.

## W

* Neo: Why do my eyes hurt?
    Morpheus: You've never used them before.
   * The Matrix, written by Andrew and Lana Wachowski (1999)

## Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

    Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 246-50.
* Eyes of gentianellas azure, Staring, winking at the skies.
** Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Hector in the Garden.
* Thine eyes are springs in whose serene And silent waters heaven is seen. Their lashes are the herbs that look On their young figures in the brook.
** William Cullen Bryant, Oh, Fairest of the Rural Maids.
* There are eyes half defiant, Half meek and compliant; Black eyes, with a wondrous, witching charm To bring us good or to work us harm.
** Phoebe Cary, Dove's Eyes.
* Oculi, tanquam, speculatores, altissimum locum obtinent.
** The eyes, like sentinels, hold the highest place in the body.
** Cicero, De Nat. Deorum, Book II. 56.
* The love light in her eye.
** Hartley Coleridge, No. CCXVIII, in Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics.
* My eyes make pictures, when they are shut.
** Samuel Taylor Coleridge, A Day-Dream.
* In the twinkling of an eye.
** I Corinthians, XV. 52. Merchant of Venice, Act II, scene 2.
* Eyes, that displaces The neighbor diamond, and out-faces That sun-shine by their own sweet graces.
** Richard Crashaw, Wishes. To his (Supposed) Mistress.
* He kept him as the apple of his eye.
** Deuteronomy, XXXII. 10.
* With affection beaming in one eye and calculation shining out of the other.
** Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, Chapter VIII.
* And pictures in our eyes to get Was all our propagation.
** John Donne, The Ecstacy.
* My life lies in those eyes which have me slain.
** William Drummond of Hawthornden, Sonnet XXIX, line 14.
* These lovely lamps, these windows of the soul.
** Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, Divine Weekes and Workes, First Week, Sixth Day.
* The love light in your eye.
** Lady Dufferin, Irish Emigrant.
* A suppressed resolve will betray itself in the eyes.
** George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (1860), Book V, Chapter XIV.
* An eye can threaten like a loaded and levelled gun, or can insult like hissing or kicking; or, in its altered mood, by beams of kindness, it can make the heart dance with joy.
** Ralph Waldo Emerson, Conduct of Life, Behavior.
* 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 poverty 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, Conduct of Life, Behavior.
* Scitum est inter cæcos luscum requare posse.
** Among the blind the one-eyed man is king.
** Erasmus, Adagia, Dignitas et Excellentia et Inequalitas, sub-division, Excel. et Ineq. (about 1500). Proverbs collected by Michael Apostolios, Cent. VII. 31. Latin given as: Cæcorum in patria luscus rex imperat omnis. Taken from the Greek. See Chiliades—Adagiorum, fifth centuria, third Chilias No. 96. Earliest use probably in G. Fullenius—Comedye of Acolastus, translation. by John Palsgrave from the Latin. (1540). Quoted by Edmund Campion—Rationes Decom. (1581). Carlyle, Frederick the Great, Book 4, Chapter II. Quoted as: Beati monoculi in regione cæcorum. Blessed are the one-eyed in the country of the blind. Herbert, Jacula Prudentum (1651). Also in Miscellanæ, Part II. Fourth Ed., p. 342. Juvenal—Satire X. 227, gives it as: Ambes Perdidit ille oculus et luscis invidet.
* To sun myself in Huncamunca's eyes.
** Henry Fielding, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great, Act I, scene 3.
* Ils sont si transparents qu'ils laissent voir votre ame.
** Eyes so transparent, That through them one sees the soul.
** Theophile Gautier, The Two Beautiful Eyes.
* 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, April.
* On woman Nature did bestow two eyes, Like Hemian's bright lamps, in matchless beauty shining, Whose beams do soonest captivate the wise And wary heads, made rare by art's refining.
** Robert Greene, Philomela, Sonnet.
* Wenn ich in deine Augen seh' So schwindet all' mein Leid und Weh.
** Whene'er into thine eyes I see, All pain and sorrow fly from me.
** Heinrich Heine, Lyrisches Intermezzo, IV.
* Die blauen Veilchen der Aeugelein.
** Those blue violets, her eyes.
** Heinrich Heine, Lyrisches Intermezzo, XXXI.
* I everywhere am thinking Of thy blue eyes' sweet smile; A sea of blue thoughts is spreading Over my heart the while.
** Heinrich Heine, New Spring, Part XVIII, Stanza 2.
* The ear is a less trustworthy witness than the eye.
** Herodotus, 1, 8.
* Her eyes the glow-worme lend thee, The shooting starres attend thee; And the elves also, Whose little eyes glow Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee.
** Robert Herrick, The Night Piece to Julia.
* We credit most our sight; one eye doth please Our trust farre more than ten eare-witnesses.
** Robert Herrick, Hesperides (1648), The Eyes Before the Ears.
* It is an active flame that flies First to the babies in the eyes.
** Robert Herrick, The Kiss.
* Thine eye was on the censer, And not the hand that bore it.
** Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Lines by a Clerk.
* Dark eyes—eternal soul of pride! Deep life in all that's true! * * * * Away, away to other skies! Away o'er seas and sands! Such eyes as those were never made To shine in other lands.
** Charles Godfrey Leland, Callirhoe.
* I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak but as the constitution is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am.
** Speaker Lenthal to Charles I. As quoted by Wendell Phillips, Under the Flag, Boston (April 21, 1861).
* Der Blick des Forschers fand Nicht selten mehr, als er zu finden wünschte.
** The eye of Paul Pry often finds more than he wished to find.
** Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan der Weise, II. 8.
* As President, I have no eyes but constitutional eyes; I cannot see you.
** Abraham Lincoln to the South Carolina Commissioners.
* And thy deep eyes, amid the gloom, Shine like jewels in a shroud.
** Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Christus, The Golden Legend, Part IV.
* The flash of his keen, black eyes Forerunning the thunder.
** Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Christus, The Golden Legend, Part IV.
* I dislike an eye that twinkles like a star. Those only are beautiful which, like the planets, have a steady, lambent light,—are luminous, but not sparkling.
** Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hyperion (1839), Book III, Chapter IV.
* O lovely eyes of azure, Clear as the waters of a brook that run Limpid and laughing in the summer sun!
** Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Masque of Pandora, Part I.
* Within her tender eye The heaven of April, with its changing light.
** Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Spirit of Poetry, line 45.
* Since your eyes are so sharpe, that you cannot onely looke through a milstone, but cleane through the minde.
** John Lyly, Euphues and his England, p. 289.
* The light of the body is the eye.
** Matthew, VI. 22.
* Where did you get your eyes so blue? Out of the sky as I came through.
** George MacDonald, Song in "At the Back of the North Wind." Ch, XXXIII.
* Among the blind the one-eyed blinkard reigns.
** Andrew Marvell, Description of Holland.
* And looks commercing with the skies, Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes.
** John Milton, Il Penseroso (1631), line 39.
* Ladies, whose bright eyes Rain influence.
** John Milton, L'Allegro, line 121.
* Si vous les voulez aimer, ce sera, ma foi, pour leurs beaux yeux.
** If you wish to love, it shall be, by my faith, for their beautiful eyes.
** Molière, Les Précieuses Ridicules, XVI.
* And violets, transform'd to eyes, Inshrined a soul within their blue.
** Thomas Moore, Evenings in Greece, Second Evening.
* Eyes of most unholy blue!
** Thomas Moore, Irish Melodies, By that Lake whose Gloomy Shore.
* 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, Loves of the Angels, Third Angel's Story, Stanza 7.
* And the world's so rich in resplendent eyes, 'Twere a pity to limit one's love to a pair.
** Thomas Moore, 'Tis Sweet to Think.
* All German cities are blind, Nuremberg alone sees with one eye.
** Frederich Nüchter, Albrecht Dürer, p. 8. English Translation by Lucy D. Williams. (Given as a saying in Venice).
* Thou my star at the stars are gazing Would I were heaven that I might behold thee with many eyes.
** Plato, from Greek Anthology.
* Pluris est oculatus testis unus, quam auriti decem. Qui audiunt, audita dicunt; qui vident, plane sciunt.
** One eye-witness is of more weight than ten hearsays. Those who hear, speak of what they have heard; those who see, know beyond mistake.
** Plautus, Truculentus, II. 6. 8.
* The eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.
** Proverbs, XVII. 24.
* Dark eyes are dearer far Than those that mock the hyacinthine bell.
** John Hamilton Reynolds, Sonnet.
* Thine eyes are like the deep, blue, boundless heaven Contracted to two circles underneath Their long, fine lashes; dark, far, measureless, Orb within orb, and line through line inwoven.
** Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound (1820), Act II, scene 1.
* Think ye by gazing on each other's eyes To multiply your lovely selves?
** Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound (1820), Act VI, scene 4.
* So when thou saw'st in nature's cabinet Stella thou straight'st look'st babies in her eyes.
** Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophel and Stella.
* But have ye not heard this, How an one-eyed man is Well sighted when He is among blind men?
** John Skelton, Why come ye not to Courte? (writing against Wolsey).
* 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 Father of Heaven. Scoop, young Jesus, for her eyes, Wood-browned pools of Paradise— Young Jesus, for the eyes, For the eyes of Viola. Angels. Tint, Prince Jesus, a Duskèd eye for Viola!
** Francis Thompson, The Making of Viola, Stanza 2.
* But optics sharp it needs, I ween, To see what is not to be seen.
** John Trumbull, McFingal, Canto I, line 67.
* 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.
** Aubrey De Vere, Psyche.
* Blue eyes shimmer with angel glances. Like spring violets over the lea.
** Constance Fenimore Woolson, October's Song.
* The harvest of a quiet eye, That broods and sleeps on his own heart.
** William Wordsworth, A Poet's Epitaph, Stanza 13.
* For this is what Jehovah of armies says, who after being glorified has sent me to the nations that were plundering you: ‘Whoever touches you touches the pupil of my eye.
** Jehovah, Zechariah 2:8

## See also

* Blindness
* Face
* Vision