Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Book ·32 of 348
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
They never said that.
What people say
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
What was actually said
Beauty… is in the eye of the beholder. — Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, Molly Bawn (1878). Margaret Wolfe Hungerford — Molly Bawn, novel (1878)
Why it stuck
Hungerford's novel is the first verifiable print use. Earlier forms exist in Plato, Hume, and Shakespeare, but never this wording.
Hume's 1742 "beauty in things exists merely in the mind" is the philosophical ancestor.
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.