Beauty without grace is a violet without scent.

Beauty without grace is a violet without scent.

Great beauty is a form of power. Many a powerful man has been reduced to a whimpering wreck by love of a fair maid. Literature and history abound with beautiful women who have used their influence over men to change the course of events. Names like Cleopatra, Madam Pompadour, Catherine the Great evoke images of female beauty interacting with the lives of famous and powerful men to affect the destiny of nations.

Perfection of form and face might suggest a noble soul but this does not always prove true. Handsome men are often depicted as overpowering and cruel leaving a string of sullied beauties in their turbulent wake but femme fatales can be just as deadly.

This proverb tells us that to have beauty that is only skin deep is not enough, it is necessary to have the wisdom and good sense to use its power with regard and respect for others. The eye is attracted to the violet by its color but the attention lingers due to the delightful scent. In days gone by people thought of the scent of a flower as being its essence in the way that the soul was the essence of the human form. Flower : scent. Body : soul.