"Charm is false and beauty is vanity." (Proverbs)

Human history is littered with examples of ideas that were thought beautiful in their time, and continued to have a following long after their inherent ugliness—and evil—was revealed.

Why? Because we begin from our senses, from what catches the eye or the heart—so we are prone to latch on to dazzling but misleading premises, and to remain married to them long after they have ceased to hold any promise.

The solution? We need to work from the inside out, probing essences rather than sensations, seeking order, and from that process, a glorious aesthetic emerges.

So beauty as a starting point becomes a distraction from truth, while those who seek truth are rewarded with a beauty that does not fade with time.

Truth—when it is uncovered—is beautiful, but beauty is not truth.