What is beauty?

I grew up near the ocean so when I think of a beautiful landscape, I think of rocky cliffs and crushing waves, and sand - the beach mostly. - Holly Fox, English service

I think that the nightly view of cities out of an airplane is beautiful. It is an endless carpet of light points, many static, many moving. From above, they glitter and flicker. Sometimes a pattern can be recognized, like for example the never-ending chess board made of the street lights and highways of Los Angeles. At other times, it is cloudy and the city lights are visible only for short moments. But the most beautiful is when one of these glittering city lights is one's own home. - Jenik Bruck, German service

What is beauty? It's a philosophical question and it's a very subjective thing. I could even say that my daughter is beauty. And it can also be a sunset for example. A sunset is really beautiful, but it really depends on exactly what you want to know about beauty. I would say beauty is something that gives somebody happiness. - Asumpta Lattus, African service

Beauty is harmony between form and movement, between colors and lines. One can observe this in nature but also with beautiful architecture. When one sees a form that appears perfect in its environment, or stands out, then that can also be very beautiful. - Anastasia Martynova, Russian service

I am currently occupied with a very specific form of beauty: Frederic Chopin's Mazurkas. There are about five dozen of them, the first written when he was 16 years old and the last in the year of his death, 1849. Together they do not build a cycle, but a labyrinth of enigmatic melodies and background rhythms: never ending variations in three-quarter time. These Mazurkas are not the most popular works by the Polish virtuoso; they are too subtle, too elusive. That is beauty, in its fundamental form. - Augusto Valente, Brazilian service

Compiled by Alina Dain

Editor: Kate Bowen