8Beauty. 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 Bront , Immanuel Kant, Joan Collins, and Kate Moss.