Good nature will always supply the absence of beauty; but beauty cannot supply the absence of good nature.

Warmth outlasts appearance and can stand in for it entirely, while the reverse has never worked. Someone kind becomes better looking to the people who know them, and someone unkind becomes harder to look at, no matter where either of them started. This is not consolation, it is simply how attention works over time. First impressions run on the face and everything after that runs on conduct.

Spend less of this week’s energy on how you come across and more on how people feel after speaking with you. The second is the part that accumulates.