--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: When we come upon beautiful things they…" description: "\"When we come upon beautiful things they act like small tears in the surface of the world that pull us through to some vaster space.\" — Elaine Scarry" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a76/elaine-scarry-28115_beautiful_when-we-come-upon-beautiful-things-they_2731749.png" --- # When we come upon beautiful things they act like small… ![“When we come upon beautiful things they act like small tears in the surface of the world that pull us through to some vaster space.” quote by Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a76/elaine-scarry-28115_beautiful_when-we-come-upon-beautiful-things-they_2731749.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a76/elaine-scarry-28115_beautiful_when-we-come-upon-beautiful-things-they_2731749.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a76/elaine-scarry-28115_beautiful_when-we-come-upon-beautiful-things-they_2731749.png) > “When we come upon beautiful things they act like small tears in the surface of the world that pull us through to some vaster space.” [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Beautiful things act as small tears, revealing deeper, transcendent spaces. **In simple terms:** Beauty opens a deeper space. Key Takeaway Seek moments that expand perception. Themes beauty transcendence perception Mood contemplative wonderful Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - Viewing art - nature walks - meditation Key Concepts Aesthetic experience spiritual insight Questions to Reflect On - What moments have opened new perspectives for you? - How does beauty affect your emotions? A Different Perspective Not everyone perceives beauty similarly. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Beautiful](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beautiful/) [Beautiful things](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beautiful-things/) [Beauty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beauty/) [Space](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/space/) [Tears](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tears/) [World](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/world/) ## Related quotes > [Death is patiently making my mask as I sleep. Each morning I awake to discover in the corners of my eyes the small tears…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/philip-dow/death-is-patiently-making-my-mask-as-i-sleep-each-morning-i-awake-to/) Philip Dow > [When you're weary, feeling small, when tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/when-you-re-weary-feeling-small-when-tears-are-in-your-eyes-i-will/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Teenage Years Big dreams Stupid fights Sleepy days Endless nights Broken hearts Mascara tears Cell phone bills Report card fears Clothes too tight Shoes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ritu-ghatourey/teenage-years-big-dreams-stupid-fights-sleepy-days-endless-nights/) [Ritu Ghatourey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ritu-ghatourey/) > [Come on beautiful, pick yourself up and dry your eyes everything will be okay. I promise.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hailie-martin/come-on-beautiful-pick-yourself-up-and-dry-your-eyes-everything-will/) Hailie Martin > [The most beautiful words are come from the most beautiful brain; Never expected that the most respectful worlds are come from the most beautiful…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-most-beautiful-words-are-come-from-the-most-beautiful-brain-never/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [No matter who you are, no matter where you come from, you are beautiful](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-obama/no-matter-who-you-are-no-matter-where-you-come-from-you-are-beautiful/) [Michelle Obama](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-obama/) > [Sometimes when you love someone you still must make sure you're happy! At the end of the day YOU come first and there is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/sometimes-when-you-love-someone-you-still-must-make-sure-you-re-happy/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [I knew I wanted to be a father; I didn't know it was going to be this awesome or that my kid would come…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mike-myers/i-knew-i-wanted-to-be-a-father-i-didn-t-know-it-was-going-to-be-this/) [Mike Myers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mike-myers/) > [Okay, I know your not perfect. but come on. your beautiful, imbrace it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexia/okay-i-know-your-not-perfect-but-come-on-your-beautiful-imbrace-it/) [Alexia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexia/) > [Come one beautiful pick yourself up and dry your eyes everything will be okay I promise.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tamika-leeigh/come-one-beautiful-pick-yourself-up-and-dry-your-eyes-everything-will/) [Tamika-leeigh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tamika-leeigh/) > [Life has come from a very beautiful source. If you remain in touch with that source, everything about you will be beautiful.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jaggi-vasudev/life-has-come-from-a-very-beautiful-source-if-you-remain-in-touch/) [Jaggi Vasudev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jaggi-vasudev/) > [How one walks through the world, the endless small adjustments of balance, is affected by the shifting weights of beautiful things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/how-one-walks-through-the-world-the-endless-small-adjustments-of/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) > [Perspective, as its inventor remarked, is a beautiful thing. What horrors of damp huts, where human beings languish, may not become picturesque through aerial…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/perspective-as-its-inventor-remarked-is-a-beautiful-thing-what/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [And I add my own love to the history of people who have loved beautiful things, and looked out for them, and pulled them…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donna-tartt/and-i-add-my-own-love-to-the-history-of-people-who-have-loved/) [Donna Tartt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donna-tartt/) > [“It was stolen. As most beautiful things eventually are.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doug-dorst/it-was-stolen-as-most-beautiful-things-eventually-are/) [Doug Dorst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doug-dorst/) ## More by Elaine Scarry > [“When one goes on to find "better", or "higher", or "truer", or "more enduring", or "more widely agreed upon" forms of beauty, what happens…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/when-one-goes-on-to-find-better-or-higher-or-truer-or-more-enduring/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) > [The generation is unceasing. Beauty, as both Plato’s Symposium and everyday life confirm, prompts the begetting of children: when the eye sees someone beautiful,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/the-generation-is-unceasing-beauty-as-both-plato-s-symposium-and/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) > [This willingness continually to revise one's own location in order to place oneself in the path of beauty is the basic impulse underlying education.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/this-willingness-continually-to-revise-one-s-own-location-in-order-to/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) > [“Matisse never hoped to save lives. But he repeatedly said that he wanted to make paintings so serenely beautiful that when one came upon…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/matisse-never-hoped-to-save-lives-but-he-repeatedly-said-that-he/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) > [Beauty always takes place in the particular, and if there are no particulars, the chances of seeing it go down](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/beauty-always-takes-place-in-the-particular-and-if-there-are-no/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) > [“The material world constrain us, often with gret beneficence, to see each person and thing in its time and place, its historical context. But…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/the-material-world-constrain-us-often-with-gret-beneficence-to-see/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) > [Permitted to inhabit neither the realm of the ideal nor the realm of the real, to be neither aspiration nor companion, beauty comes to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/permitted-to-inhabit-neither-the-realm-of-the-ideal-nor-the-realm-of/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) > [Beauty always takes place in the particular.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/beauty-always-takes-place-in-the-particular/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) > [How one walks through the world, the endless small adjustments of balance, is affected by the shifting weights of beautiful things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/how-one-walks-through-the-world-the-endless-small-adjustments-of/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) > [Beauty brings copies of itself into being.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/beauty-brings-copies-of-itself-into-being/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) > [“Our desire for beauty is likely to outlast its object because, as Kant once observed, unlike all other pleasures, the pleasure we take in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/our-desire-for-beauty-is-likely-to-outlast-its-object-because-as-kant/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) > [“Beauty as a “greeting”. At the moment one comes into the presence of something beautiful, it greets you. It lifts away from the neutral…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/beauty-as-a-greeting-at-the-moment-one-comes-into-the-presence-of/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) > [“Something beautiful fills the mind yet invites the search for something beyond itself, something larger or something of the same scale with which it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/something-beautiful-fills-the-mind-yet-invites-the-search-for/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) > [Injury is the thing every exhausting piece of strategy and every single weapon is designed to bring into being: it is not something inadvertently…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/injury-is-the-thing-every-exhausting-piece-of-strategy-and-every/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) > [“This willingness continually to revise one's own location in order to place oneself in the path of beauty is the basic impulse underlying education.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/this-willingness-continually-to-revise-one-s-own-location-in-order-to-2/) [Elaine Scarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) [Explore all 19 Elaine Scarry quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/) ## More Beautiful quotes > [I received a beautiful welcome to the world of music. I want to give something back to the younger generation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/luciano-pavarotti/i-received-a-beautiful-welcome-to-the-world-of-music-i-want-to-give/) [Luciano Pavarotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/luciano-pavarotti/) > [Being beautiful comes naturally!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/being-beautiful-comes-naturally/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [My school was one of the most beautiful places a child can grow up in. You are surrounded by nature - cats, dogs, birds…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amala-akkineni/my-school-was-one-of-the-most-beautiful-places-a-child-can-grow-up-in/) [Amala Akkineni](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amala-akkineni/) > [“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/) > [In the hearing world, I'm constantly having to lip-read and trying to understand what's going on. Sign language is so beautiful. It gives you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rose-ayling-ellis/in-the-hearing-world-i-m-constantly-having-to-lip-read-and-trying-to/) [Rose Ayling-Ellis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rose-ayling-ellis/) > [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 > [You will never know just how beautiful you are to me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/you-will-never-know-just-how-beautiful-you-are-to-me/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [You felt a deep sorrow, the kind of melancholy you feel when you're in a beautiful place and the sun is going down](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thrity-umrigar/you-felt-a-deep-sorrow-the-kind-of-melancholy-you-feel-when-you-re-in/) [Thrity Umrigar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thrity-umrigar/) > [ Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. My three \[great teachers\] did not… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-steinbeck/teaching-might-even-be-the-greatest-of-the-arts-since-the-medium-is/) [John Steinbeck](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-steinbeck/) > [You're beautiful, cute, pretty, gorgeous, and fuck.. I ran out of words.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/raghib-clitso/you-re-beautiful-cute-pretty-gorgeous-and-fuck-i-ran-out-of-words/) [Raghib Clitso](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/raghib-clitso/) > [Growing up in Iceland, it was very beautiful, very safe, but quite isolated. There was something about jazz music that had a way of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laufey/growing-up-in-iceland-it-was-very-beautiful-very-safe-but-quite/) [Laufey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laufey/) > [How could you feel worthless when God has honoured you by creating you and choosing you to be with Him, in this life and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yasmin-mogahed/how-could-you-feel-worthless-when-god-has-honoured-you-by-creating/) [Yasmin Mogahed](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/yasmin-mogahed/) > [Sometimes it's about less is more. It's about the seed. Thinking about this gigantic tree that you think is so beautiful but it started…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fred-durst/sometimes-it-s-about-less-is-more-it-s-about-the-seed-thinking-about/) [Fred Durst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fred-durst/) > [God's Word does provide life lessons to teach us how to live. And it gives us beautiful poetry that gives voice to our human…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-rothschild/god-s-word-does-provide-life-lessons-to-teach-us-how-to-live-and-it/) [Jennifer Rothschild](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-rothschild/) [Browse all 17,976 Beautiful quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beautiful/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "When we come upon beautiful things they act like small tears in the surface of the world that pull us through to some vaster space.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Elaine Scarry" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/when-we-come-upon-beautiful-things-they-act-like-small-tears-in-the/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Beautiful" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/when-we-come-upon-beautiful-things-they-act-like-small-tears-in-the/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a76/elaine-scarry-28115_beautiful_when-we-come-upon-beautiful-things-they_2731749.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a76/elaine-scarry-28115_beautiful_when-we-come-upon-beautiful-things-they_2731749.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a76/elaine-scarry-28115_beautiful_when-we-come-upon-beautiful-things-they_2731749.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“When we come upon beautiful things they act like small tears in the surface of the world that pull us…” — Elaine Scarry", "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": "Elaine Scarry", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elaine-scarry/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "When we come upon beautiful things...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/when-we-come-upon-beautiful-things-they-act-like-small-tears-in-the/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elaine-scarry/when-we-come-upon-beautiful-things-they-act-like-small-tears-in-the/#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 } } ] } ```