[Ads-l] "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"

[Bill Mullins]

Wikipedia, and many others, credit this to Margaret Wolfe Hungerford's novel Molly Bawn (1878).

1848 Horace Mann, letter to C. Pierce 24 Apr
[quoted in 1865 Mary Peabody Mann Life of Horace Mann 266]

Now, do not laugh at my adjective; for beauty, you know, is in the eye of the beholder... . [ellipsis in original]

https://archive.org/details/lifeofhoracemann0000unse/page/266/mode/1up?q=%22is+in+the+eye+of+the+beholder%22



1869 Annie Thomas False Colours. A Novel Vol II 196

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is a truism that does not apply solely to physical beauty.

https://archive.org/details/falsecolorsnovel02thom/page/196/mode/1up?q=%22is+in+the+eye+of+the+beholder%22

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