Eyes, often referred to as the windows to the soul, have captivated poets, philosophers, and artists throughout history. These intricate organs not only serve the essential function of sight but also convey a myriad of emotions, from love and joy to sorrow and despair. Whether described as mirrors reflecting our innermost thoughts or portals to understanding the world around us, eyes hold a unique power in human expression.
In literature and art, eyes symbolize much more than mere vision. They become vehicles for conveying profound truths and emotions that transcend language barriers. From the enigmatic allure of a lover’s gaze to the haunting depths of a character’s sorrow-filled eyes, writers and artists have long recognized the potent symbolism encapsulated within this seemingly simple feature of the human anatomy. Through the ages, eyes have served as inspiration for countless works of art, poetry, and prose, inviting us to delve deeper into the complexities of the human experience.
Below, you’ll find a collection of quotes that celebrate the beauty, depth, and mystery of eyes. Whether you seek inspiration for your next creative project or simply wish to reflect on the profound significance of this age-old motif, these quotes offer poignant insights into the enduring fascination with the windows to our souls.
I fear that the day I die, I am going to die without accomplishing what I have in my mind. Life is too short, and a lot of things can happen, and I am really keen to see it with my own eyes – and that is why I am in a hurry. Mohammad bin Salman
To prejudge other men’s notions before we have looked into them is not to show their darkness but to put out our own eyes. John Locke
You keep your eyes on the prize, you try to do what’s right, and eventually, you’ll reach your goal. Eric Holder
The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Gilbert K. Chesterton
Men fall in love with their eyes – they like what they see – and women fall in love with their ears – they like what they hear! Zsa Zsa Gabor
Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you’re living? Bob Marley
By turning your eyes on God in meditation, your whole soul will be filled with God. Begin all your prayers in the presence of God. Saint Francis de Sales
The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, ‘O God, forgive me,’ or ‘Help me.’ Billy Graham
We tend to accept information that confirms our prior beliefs and ignore or discredit information that does not. This confirmation bias settles over our eyes like distorting spectacles for everything we look at. Kyle Hill
The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. William Blake
There’s beauty everywhere. There are amazing things happening everywhere, you just have to be able to open your eyes and witness it. Some days, that’s harder than others. Sarah McLachlan
The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions. Marcus Tullius Cicero
The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness. Nikos Kazantzakis
Hunger, revenge, to sleep are petty foes, But only death the jealous eyes can close. William Wycherley
Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes. Jim Carrey
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. Marcel Proust
Drawing makes you see things clearer, and clearer and clearer still, until your eyes ache. David Hockney
When you are old and gray and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire, take down this book and slowly read, and dream of the soft look your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep. William Butler Yeats
The eyes are more exact witnesses than the ears. Heraclitus
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards. Benjamin Franklin
How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god. Alan Watts
In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don’t let your eyes deceive you. Janet Jackson
Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal. E. Joseph Cossman
You left and I cried tears of blood. My sorrow grows. Its not just that You left. But when You left my eyes went with You. Now, how will I cry? Rumi
What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes. Harry Houdini
Let my soul smile through my heart and my heart smile through my eyes, that I may scatter rich smiles in sad hearts. Paramahansa Yogananda
My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera’s eye may entirely change my idea. Edward Weston
Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes. Friedrich Nietzsche
Love myself I do. Not everything, but I love the good as well as the bad. I love my crazy lifestyle, and I love my hard discipline. I love my freedom of speech and the way my eyes get dark when I’m tired. I love that I have learned to trust people with my heart, even if it will get broken. I am proud of everything that I am and will become. Johnny Weir
The world is the true classroom. The most rewarding and important type of learning is through experience, seeing something with our own eyes. Jack Hanna
Bologna is a deli meat for people with eyes. Mitch Hedberg
I found the experience of falling in love or being in love was a death: a death of everything. You kind of watch yourself die in a wonderful way, and you experience for the briefest moment – if you see yourself for a moment through their eyes – everything you believed about yourself gone. In a death-and-rebirth sense. Hozier
What light is to the eyes – what air is to the lungs – what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man. Robert Green Ingersoll
The ancient Greek philosophers were blonde and blue-eyed and, even then, talked about how their race was mixed with others and how this affected their society negatively. When there were no more natural blondes and no more blue eyes in Greece, they incidentally stopped producing great philosophers. Varg Vikernes
I close my eyes, then I drift away, into the magic night I softly say. A silent prayer, like dreamers do, then I fall asleep to dream my dreams of you. Roy Orbison
Evolution was far more thrilling to me than the biblical account. Who would not rather be a rising ape than a falling angel? To my juvenile eyes, Darwin was proved true every day. It doesn’t take much to make us flip back into monkeys again. Terry Pratchett
When I look into the future, it’s so bright it burns my eyes. Oprah Winfrey
The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my eyes and all is born again. Sylvia Plath
Death is someone you see very clearly with eyes in the center of your heart: eyes that see not by reacting to light, but by reacting to a kind of a chill from within the marrow of your own life. Thomas Merton
Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ray Bradbury
Open your mouth and shut your eyes and see what Zeus will send you. Aristophanes
We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts. William Hazlitt
My kids are my No. 1 priority. They’re the light in my everyday life. The sunshine. The miracle. Those eyes. Those smiles. At the same time, I have an extended, amazing family that is my audience. All these people have been with me for such a long time. I have these two responsibilities. Thalia
I have really big alien eyes, so the more mascara the better. Sarah Hyland
All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark. Swami Vivekananda
Love knows not distance; it hath no continent; its eyes are for the stars. Gilbert Parker
I couldn’t beat people with my strength; I don’t have a hard shot; I’m not the quickest skater in the league. My eyes and my mind have to do most of the work. Wayne Gretzky
People just see the shine. They don’t see the grind, the bags under my eyes. It was a lot of grinding, setbacks… I ain’t finna let nothing stop me. Wherever I stop at, I already know who I am. Kodak Black
I shut my eyes in order to see. Paul Gauguin
When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land. Desmond Tutu
Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the ground. Dante Alighieri
We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties. Oswald Chambers
The sky is the daily bread of the eyes. Ralph Waldo Emerson
You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories. Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
When you hear people making hateful comments, stand up to them. Point out what a waste it is to hate, and you could open their eyes. Taylor Swift
Fashion and music are two great artistic forms that can be molded by the youth culture – our taste and our passion for evolving things in our limited time on earth allows us to look at things with fresh eyes. Virgil Abloh
Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you’ll see the way to fly. Richard Bach
Leaders keep their eyes on the horizon, not just on the bottom line. Warren Bennis
Danger gleams like sunshine to a brave man’s eyes. Euripides
I believe that miracles happen every day. Every person is a miracle. Every moment is a miracle. If only we can open our eyes, we’ll see God’s love everywhere. Bo Sanchez
You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. Mark Twain
Remember, we see the world not as it is but as we are. Most of us see through the eyes of our fears and our limiting beliefs and our false assumptions. Robin S. Sharma
The underprivileged are the only privileged ones in the eyes of Allah. Sana Khan
Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant? Henry David Thoreau
Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones. Thich Nhat Hanh
Sometimes you can’t see yourself clearly until you see yourself through the eyes of others. Ellen DeGeneres
I don’t believe in an eye for an eye. I believe in two eyes for an eye. Bas Rutten
I think that the greatest gift God ever gave man is not the gift of sight but the gift of vision. Sight is a function of the eyes, but vision is a function of the heart. Myles Munroe
For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone. Audrey Hepburn
He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore. Sigmund Freud
In these times you have to be an optimist to open your eyes when you awake in the morning. Carl Sandburg
God didn’t give up on me. I am somebody in God’s eyes… Let me be a prime example of how I’ve been through the storm and the rain, and I made it over. Fantasia Barrino
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. Henry Ford
A fool is wise in his eyes. King Solomon
Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life. Robert Louis Stevenson
Fear has many eyes and can see things underground. Miguel de Cervantes
But O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes. William Shakespeare
Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes? Groucho Marx
The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages. Virginia Woolf
I don’t make music for eyes. I make music for ears. Adele
An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language. Martin Buber
If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning. C. S. Lewis
Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision. Stevie Wonder
I go out there and get my eyes gouged, my nose busted, my body slammed. I love the pain of the game. Dennis Rodman
All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible. T. E. Lawrence
There is a saying, ‘Eyes are the windows to the soul.’ It means, mostly, people can see through someone else by eye contact in seven seconds. I have a habit that if I meet someone I don’t know, I’d like to look at her or his eyes on purpose. When my eyes lay on them, I can immediately see their true color. Peng Liyuan
Just as we have two eyes and two feet, duality is part of life. Carlos Santana
When you start using senses you’ve neglected, your reward is to see the world with completely fresh eyes. Barbara Sher
This past year has been something else… it’s opened my eyes to many things and many people. It’s had its ups and downs and ins and outs. And I believe we’ve all been able to take something from that and grow in our own imparticular ways. We’ve over come obstacles, and set in motion opportunities that can change our own individual lives. Kyle Schmid
When a woman is talking to you, listen to what she says with her eyes. Victor Hugo
It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else’s eyes. Sally Field
What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like. Saint Augustine
I once had an extraordinary experience with former prime minister Ted Heath. Both of his eyes, including the whites, turned jet black, and I seemed to be looking into two black holes. David Icke
Eventually, my eyes were opened, and I really understood nature. I learned to love at the same time. Claude Monet
If you see with innocent eyes, everything is divine. Federico Fellini
Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird? David Attenborough
It is natural to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes to that siren until she allures us to our death. Patrick Henry
The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart. St. Jerome
A man’s feet should be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world. George Santayana