beauty is only skin deep

beauty is only skin deep idiom
External attractiveness has no relation to goodness or essential quality. This maxim was first stated by Sir Thomas Overbury in his poem “A Wife” (1613): “All the carnall beauty of my wife is but skin-deep.“

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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