“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart,” Khalil Gibran once said. By this he meant that external physical beauty is merely the semblance of beauty and not its real embodiment. This essay will attempt to substantiate that statement and explain why goodness and morality are the truest form of beauty, though neither can be perceived by the eye. True beauty can only be felt by the heart.

Everyone wants to be beautiful. Everyone wants to possess the thing that is called beauty, because possession of beauty is associated with happiness. People who are the most attractive are often portrayed as being the happiest ones and greatly envied for their looks, as it is assumed that their attractive exterior is exclusively responsible for their apparent inner contentment. “Normal” people thus assume that beauty is responsible for happiness, and no one wants to be unhappy. So in today’s society, people pursue exterior beauty thinking that its possession makes one happy, though exterior beauty is not true beauty. People with true beauty are the only happy ones, as I believe that beauty comes from the inside.

It is a fact that people seek happiness in life. As Beyoncé said in the music video for her song Pretty Hurts, “My aspiration… is to be happy.” The twenty-first century media has closely linked physical attractiveness to happiness, and as part of defining this standard of beauty they chose models who were thin. Therefore, by the transitive property, happiness was portrayed by the media as being caused by thinness.  Everywhere one goes are visible adverts and magazine titles claiming “Lose 10 pounds in 10 days… and discover a new you!” as well as slogans such as “First I was fat and depressed… and now I’m skinny and living the high life!,” such that many people believe that they will be happier on this here diet, more contented if they can fit in those jeans, love their body so much more without those ten stubborn pounds. They think, “Oh, if I can just lose those three pounds I’ll be less anxious. Without those four inches, my life would be so much better. If I can be a size 2, then all my life problems will disappear,” except that there’s no big epiphany when those things happen. There’s just another checkmark and another goal met, but they come still missing the promised reward. So people think, “Maybe I just wasn’t setting the bar high enough. Maybe instead of 10 pounds I need to lose 20. Drop my BMI to 16. When I get there- that’s when I’ll be happy!” But it doesn’t work that way, does it? All they ever get is pain, and certainly nothing that resembling happiness. They wake up one morning to find themselves nothing more than skin and bones, and that skin and those bones haven’t brought them the happiness they expected. They haven’t given any joy. That’s because, as they slowly learn, happiness, and with it beauty, don’t come from a treadmill or a scale or portions fit for a hamster. They can’t be obtained with a designer wardrobe and hair extensions. They come from self-acceptance and inner contentment. They come from the inside, and radiate to the outside.

Defined were ideals of beauty that go no more than skin deep. This idea of beauty does not bring happiness; rather, in some cases it brings the opposite. Why, then, has there been in this essay such an emphasis on beauty being tied in with happiness? Because, in my opinion, true beauty is caused by happiness. I believe that people who possess that quality- happiness- are able to focus on qualities such as confidence, self-love, and compassion, and attract admiration for those actions. As Alexis Wolfer said in her article True Beauty Comes from Within, “when I have asked anyone “what makes someone beautiful?” the answer is always about character, confidence, intellect, passion, kindness, personality, poise and soul. It’s always a reflection of inner beauty.”

External beauty is transient, and weak, and irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. But surely true beauty wouldn’t fade so quickly, would it? Surely, I believe, true beauty is more than skin deep and fleeting. Which leads me to believe that, as Khalil Gibran asserted, true beauty is not in the face but truly is in the heart. 100 years from now, we will likely all be dead, and the only part of us that will remain will be our souls. I will not believe that we will all be ugly then; rather, I believe that inner beauty will become the only kind that can be seen, and thus the only kind that matters.