--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I thought... their elegance... lies not…" description: "\"I thought... their elegance... lies not so much in their clothes as in their bodies, and their bodies have received it, and continue to unceasingly rec..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e4a/alexander-theroux-14881_beauty_i-thought-their-elegance-lies-not-so-muc_2125568.png" --- # I thought... their elegance... lies not so much in their… ![“I thought... their elegance... lies not so much in their clothes as in their bodies, and their bodies have received it, and continue to unceasingly receive it, from their souls, which are just like yours, lovely Simonetta.” quote by Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e4a/alexander-theroux-14881_beauty_i-thought-their-elegance-lies-not-so-muc_2125568.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e4a/alexander-theroux-14881_beauty_i-thought-their-elegance-lies-not-so-muc_2125568.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e4a/alexander-theroux-14881_beauty_i-thought-their-elegance-lies-not-so-muc_2125568.png) > “I thought... their elegance... lies not so much in their clothes as in their bodies, and their bodies have received it, and continue to unceasingly receive it, from their souls, which are just like yours, lovely Simonetta.” [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote suggests that true elegance comes from inner spirit and character rather than outward appearance, reflecting a shared humanity. **In simple terms:** Elegance is inner, not just clothing. Key Takeaway Value inner qualities over appearance. Themes beauty humanity inner self appearance elegance Mood contemplative reflective Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - personal relationships - self‑esteem - social interactions - fashion critique Key Concepts philosophy identity psychology Questions to Reflect On - How does inner character shape external perception? - Can appearance ever reflect inner virtue? A Different Perspective May overlook external factors that also influence perception. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Beauty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beauty/) [Body](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/body/) [Clothes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/clothes/) [Elegance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/elegance/) [Lying](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/lying/) [Soul](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/soul/) ## Related quotes > [French elegance lies in the balance of romance and restraint.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-turnbull/french-elegance-lies-in-the-balance-of-romance-and-restraint/) [Sarah Turnbull](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-turnbull/) > [Our minds want clothes as much as our bodies.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-butler/our-minds-want-clothes-as-much-as-our-bodies/) [Samuel Butler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-butler/) > [“Elegance lies not in the clothes we wear, but in the way we wear them.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/elegance-lies-not-in-the-clothes-we-wear-but-in-the-way-we-wear-them/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [We have a direct contact with our clothes; they're like a little house. You have to feel good and at home in what you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christophe-lemaitre/we-have-a-direct-contact-with-our-clothes-they-re-like-a-little-house/) [Christophe Lemaitre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christophe-lemaitre/) > [If fun puts a smile on your face, beauty and elegance put a smile in your heart and take your breath away. It's longer-lasting…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-goulston/if-fun-puts-a-smile-on-your-face-beauty-and-elegance-put-a-smile-in/) [Mark Goulston](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-goulston/) > [Looks, health and elegance are what counts. Someone can look wonderful in a sweatsuit.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/oleg-cassini/looks-health-and-elegance-are-what-counts-someone-can-look-wonderful/) [Oleg Cassini](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/oleg-cassini/) > [Rick Black writes with the honed elegance of a poet so in command of lyric sentiment and the efficient evocative use of language that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kwame-dawes/rick-black-writes-with-the-honed-elegance-of-a-poet-so-in-command-of/) [Kwame Dawes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kwame-dawes/) > [Elegance is innate...individual...eternal...it stands the test of time!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aishwarya-rai-bachchan/elegance-is-innate-individual-eternal-it-stands-the-test-of-time/) [Aishwarya Rai Bachchan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aishwarya-rai-bachchan/) > [“et iam nox umida caelo praecipitat suadentque cadentia sidera somnos”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vergil/et-iam-nox-umida-caelo-praecipitat-suadentque-cadentia-sidera-somnos/) Vergil > [In the right hands, a comic strip attains a beauty and elegance that, really, I would put against any other art.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-watterson/in-the-right-hands-a-comic-strip-attains-a-beauty-and-elegance-that/) [Bill Watterson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-watterson/) > [Do you know what elegance is? It is not only what you're wearing. It is how you wear it. who you are inside.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carolina-herrera/do-you-know-what-elegance-is-it-is-not-only-what-you-re-wearing-it-is/) [Carolina Herrera](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carolina-herrera/) > [If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor. On being reproached that his formula of gravitation was longer and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-einstein/if-you-are-out-to-describe-the-truth-leave-elegance-to-the-tailor-on/) [Albert Einstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-einstein/) > [A design may be called organic when there is an harmonious organization of the parts within the whole, according to structure, material, and purpose.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eliot-noyes/a-design-may-be-called-organic-when-there-is-an-harmonious/) Eliot Noyes > [All eyes are on Haaland and Sancho but Kai Havertz is the one from a German perspective. He is special and he is like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/owen-hargreaves/all-eyes-are-on-haaland-and-sancho-but-kai-havertz-is-the-one-from-a/) [Owen Hargreaves](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/owen-hargreaves/) > [Elegance has a bad effect on my constitution.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louisa-may-alcott/elegance-has-a-bad-effect-on-my-constitution/) [Louisa May Alcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louisa-may-alcott/) ## More by Alexander Theroux > [There is no loneliness like that of a failed marriage.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/there-is-no-loneliness-like-that-of-a-failed-marriage/) [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) > [Yellow is vagueness and luminousness, both.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/yellow-is-vagueness-and-luminousness-both/) [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) > [Will I have to use a dictionary to read your book?" asked Mrs. Dodypol. "It depends," says I, "how much you used the dictionary…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/will-i-have-to-use-a-dictionary-to-read-your-book-asked-mrs-dodypol/) [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) > [“...we are willing to lose ourselves in another as we exchange fates with one whom we love but on whom our heart is nevertheless…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/we-are-willing-to-lose-ourselves-in-another-as-we-exchange-fates-with/) [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) > [Adultery is the vice of equivocation. It is not marriage but a mockery of it, a merging that mixes love and dread together like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/adultery-is-the-vice-of-equivocation-it-is-not-marriage-but-a-mockery/) [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) > [The particular source of frustration of women observing their own self-study and measuring their worth as women by the distance they kept from men…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/the-particular-source-of-frustration-of-women-observing-their-own/) [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) > [ The parrot holds its food for prim consumption as daintily as any debutante, \[with\] a predilection for pot roast, hashed-brown potatoes, duck skin, butter,… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/the-parrot-holds-its-food-for-prim-consumption-as-daintily-as-any/) [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) > [Nothing is quite as bad as being without privacy and lonely at the same time.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/nothing-is-quite-as-bad-as-being-without-privacy-and-lonely-at-the/) [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) > [The urge for Chinese food is always unpredictable: famous for no occasion, standard fare for no holiday, and the constant as to demand is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/the-urge-for-chinese-food-is-always-unpredictable-famous-for-no/) [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) > [Faculty Meetings are held whenever the need to show off is combined with the imperative of accomplishing nothing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/faculty-meetings-are-held-whenever-the-need-to-show-off-is-combined/) [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) > [“. . . it is called 'camel case' or 'intercapping' -- of writing small letters next to large in the same word, as in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/it-is-called-camel-case-or-intercapping-of-writing-small-letters-next/) [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) > [Hypocrisy is the essence of snobbery, but all snobbery is about the problem of belonging.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/hypocrisy-is-the-essence-of-snobbery-but-all-snobbery-is-about-the/) [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) > [September: it was the most beautiful of words, he’d always felt, evoking orange-flowers, swallows, and regret.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/september-it-was-the-most-beautiful-of-words-he-d-always-felt-evoking/) [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) > [We all end up living secret lives. We create what we are willing to admire and admiring what we shouldn't confess to the secret…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/we-all-end-up-living-secret-lives-we-create-what-we-are-willing-to/) [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) > [It's true, you can never eat a pet you name. And anyway, it would be like a ventriloquist eating his dummy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/it-s-true-you-can-never-eat-a-pet-you-name-and-anyway-it-would-be/) [Alexander Theroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) [Explore all 45 Alexander Theroux quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/) ## More Beauty quotes > [We do not want nowadays temples of worship and outward rites and ceremonies. What we really want is an Asram. We want a place…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/we-do-not-want-nowadays-temples-of-worship-and-outward-rites-and/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [How could anybody confuse truth with beauty, I thought as I looked at him. Truth came with sunken eyes, bony or scarred, decayed. Its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-fitch/how-could-anybody-confuse-truth-with-beauty-i-thought-as-i-looked-at/) [Janet Fitch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-fitch/) > [A thing of beauty is a joy for ever;It's loveliness increase;it will never pass into nothingness;but still will keep a bower quiet for us,and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-keats/a-thing-of-beauty-is-a-joy-for-ever-it-s-loveliness-increase-it-will/) [John Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-keats/) > [To fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity, and still be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tool/to-fathom-the-power-to-witness-the-beauty-to-bathe-in-the-fountain-to/) [Tool](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tool/) > [The term "black metal" has become a lot looser, or can include a larger range of sounds and extra-musical aesthetics, not just Satan and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-marston/the-term-black-metal-has-become-a-lot-looser-or-can-include-a-larger/) [Colin Marston](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-marston/) > [“We've all met people who are beautiful on the outside, however, when they open their mouths to speak, they have nothing of substance to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-c-young/we-ve-all-met-people-who-are-beautiful-on-the-outside-however-when/) [Susan C. Young](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-c-young/) > [There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/there-are-various-orders-of-beauty-causing-men-to-make-fools-of/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [To me, the beauty of a quilt or a dress lies within the stitches and the thought of the person who made them. When…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/natalie/to-me-the-beauty-of-a-quilt-or-a-dress-lies-within-the-stitches-and/) [Natalie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/natalie/) > [“do not misunderstand person by beauty You really do not know its real or Mask on dirty thoughts”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mohammed-zaki-ansari/do-not-misunderstand-person-by-beauty-you-really-do-not-know-its-real/) [Mohammed Zaki Ansari](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mohammed-zaki-ansari/) > [“I already love in you your beauty, but I am only beginning to love in you that which is eternal and ever precious –…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-tolstoy/i-already-love-in-you-your-beauty-but-i-am-only-beginning-to-love-in/) [Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-tolstoy/) > [The more perfect the sight is the more delightful the beautiful object. The more perfect the appetite, the sweeter the food. The more musical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-baxter/the-more-perfect-the-sight-is-the-more-delightful-the-beautiful/) [Richard Baxter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-baxter/) > [Call her beautiful a million times and she won't believe you. Call her ugly once, and she will never forget it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tumblr/call-her-beautiful-a-million-times-and-she-won-t-believe-you-call-her/) Tumblr > [Time can but make her beauty over again.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/time-can-but-make-her-beauty-over-again/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [ The social \[media channel\] isn't about beauty contests and popularity contests. They're a distortion, a caricature of the real thing. It's about trust, connection,… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/umair-haque/the-social-media-channel-isn-t-about-beauty-contests-and-popularity/) [Umair Haque](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/umair-haque/) > [“What about you? What do you do?” I needed to ask questions, draw him out. I needed to find out all the information I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-avery-ellison/what-about-you-what-do-you-do-i-needed-to-ask-questions-draw-him-out/) [Kate Avery Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-avery-ellison/) [Browse all 24,662 Beauty quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beauty/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I thought... their elegance... lies not so much in their clothes as in their bodies, and their bodies have received it, and continue to unceasingly receive it, from their souls, which are just like yours, lovely Simonetta.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alexander Theroux" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/i-thought-their-elegance-lies-not-so-much-in-their-clothes-as-in/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Beauty" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/i-thought-their-elegance-lies-not-so-much-in-their-clothes-as-in/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e4a/alexander-theroux-14881_beauty_i-thought-their-elegance-lies-not-so-muc_2125568.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e4a/alexander-theroux-14881_beauty_i-thought-their-elegance-lies-not-so-muc_2125568.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e4a/alexander-theroux-14881_beauty_i-thought-their-elegance-lies-not-so-muc_2125568.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I thought... their elegance... lies not so much in their clothes as in their bodies, and their bodies have…” — Alexander Theroux", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Alexander Theroux", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-theroux/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "I thought... their elegance... lies not...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/i-thought-their-elegance-lies-not-so-much-in-their-clothes-as-in/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-theroux/i-thought-their-elegance-lies-not-so-much-in-their-clothes-as-in/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```