The Eyes Are The Windows Of The Soul

[~Vulpine~]

Who coined this phrase, when, and how??

[Ethel]

From the Bible.

Matthew 6:22-23 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)
22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

[chakka35]

Not convincing, Ethel. We are talking here about a sentence which many of us have heard for years. Your 'Matthew' quote merely expresses roughly the same idea in different words. The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying and Quotation lists it as merely 'a proverb' but it cannot be a biblical Proverb because it is not listed in any other Dictionary of Quotations that I can find - including the Oxford. The nearest I can get is a character invented by Artemus Ward who says " I wish there was winders to my Sole", sed I, "so that you could see some of my feelins". I'll keep trying, Vulpine.

[~Vulpine~]

Thanks - this seems to be a very mysterious saying. I can't find info on it anywhere.

[n00dles]

"These lovely lamps, these windows of the soul"...............

Du Bartas

[maxximus]

the native american indians after killing a white man in battle always rolled the dead body onto it's stomach, as they believed the eyes were the windows of the soul. and by putting him face down his spirit or soul would forever be trapped in his body and not join the great spirit, as he was not worthy. don't know that this answers the question, but it is an interesting little tidbit, and i'm sure if one looked into it there's a lot more to it.

[Quizmonster]

"The eyes are the windows of the soul" is one of those quotations that never were, just as "Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink" is...or "A picture is worth a thousand words". That is, nobody ever actually expressed the thought in exactly these words except by mistake! Consider, however...
a. "These lovely lamps, these windows of the soul" which is a quote referring to eyes from a work by Guillaume de Salluste du Bartas (1544 - 1590) called �Divine Weeks and Works'.
b. "Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul", are words spoken by Hamlet's mother in the play by Shakespeare (1564 - 1616).
c. "Eyes so transparent that through them one sees the soul" which is from a work by Theophile Gautier (1811 - 1872) called �The Two Beautiful Eyes'.
The lazily misquoted version that most of us use nowadays is just a corruption of one or another of these.

[~Vulpine~]

Brilliant! Thanks! That really helps :D

[n00dles]

Glad to see I've got something right, then! ☺☺ ☺