Beauty. How do we achieve it? Who gets to define it? How do you live a beautiful life? Beauty standards of today are exacting, ever-evolving, and often overwhelming. Being Beautiful is your timely, illustrated guide and companion to navigating the relentless pursuit of beauty, both inside and out. A captivating collection of writings, quotes, poems, and musings from some of the world's greatest thinkers --philosophers, celebrities, writers, cultural commentators, and more-- on what it means to be beautiful , it is an inspiring anthology for anyone interested in the concept of personal beauty, from the clothes we wear and the make-up we use, to the lives we lead and the relationships we nurture. Through contemplative, humorous, uplifting and humbling passages interspersed with specially commissioned illustrations , the book attempts to explore and illuminate what beauty means to us in the twenty-first century. And most of all, to inspire, provoke and delight . The discussion is organized into five chapters: Defining Beauty Finding Beauty Living Beautifully Inner Beauty Outer Beauty Topics range from how we might define a beautiful face ( Edmund Burke ), how one can live a "beautiful" life ( Buddha ), and the beauty that can be found in aging ( Naomi Wolf ). Contributors include such varied voices as Sali Hughes , Emily Dickinson , John Cage , Francis Bacon , Charlotte Brontë , Immanuel Kant , Joan Collins , and Kate Moss .