# What is the Most Beautiful Thing You Have Ever Seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 15, 2017, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649 "2017-11-15T01:12:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/21 "2017-11-15T09:00:12Z")
I can think of a few. I was in Germany for three months and did weekend trips to several different cities. I took the overnight train to Paris. Got in early in the morning (it was November), took the subway to my hotel and dropped of my suitcase, and walked a couple hundred meters to the Arc de Triomphe. The sun had just come up, but the day was drizzly and overcast. And then the sun must have found a break in the clouds because this incredible, warm, red light came in underneath the clouds. In that moment I knew why artists have flocked there for centuries. It lasted about 30 seconds and then it was gone. I had time for two pictures ([1](http://www.muppetlabs.com/~eric/enhanced/arch_3.jpg), [2](http://www.muppetlabs.com/~eric/enhanced/champs_4.jpg)); I’ve tried to correct the color to be more like what I saw, but it’s just not even close. And no, I’m not a sucky photographer; the other half of the Arc de Triomphe had scaffolding around it. In my flying days I did an evening flight to a large, but not terribly crowded airport. Had a little time on the ground and got ready to fly home. I had to get directions through the sea of blue lights that marked the taxiways. On the takeoff, there were a lot of bright lights at the far end of the runway. I took off, made a left turn, and as my eyes adjusted to the darkness it felt like I was flying into the stars. After a very difficult sailing trip in the North Atlantic we got to St. Kitts on the day before Christmas. I knew some of my shipmates were leaving and I wanted to get some part of the ship cleaned up a bit so I got the Brasso and polished the ship’s bell. Took three hours, but it was absolutely gleaming. We sailed around to the leeward side of the island. I was in the rigging furling the sails; it was sunny and warm, seemed like I could see the whole Caribbean reflected in the bell, someone pointed next to the ship and in the clear water I could see a sea turtle swimming. > [@Small\_Hen](#): > > A year later, I was a sullen thirteen year old, standing at the lip of the Grand Canyon. A day and a half in Dad’s Volvo, five seater to five family members, and I could not give less of a shit. We were en-rout to Vegas, and I was tired, hot, car sick, and wanted to sleep. The sun was setting over the most gorgeous site in the country, and I have no memories of any awe. It must have been gorgeous, but I feel like I haven’t really seen it. I’ve been down in the Canyon. It’s a whole new perspective to feel what it does to your body when you hike across it. > [@Senegoid](#): > > ETA: Oh, and there was that flight where we saw a lightning storm from our front-row seats at 12,000 feet. :eek: Wish we had a GoPro running for that one! I saw a thunderstorm from the window seat in an airliner once. It was like flashbulbs going off under a layer of cotton. My dad was with me; he was a pilot his whole career and said he’d never seen anything like it. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/22 "2017-11-15T09:29:46Z")
Oh, I have a recent one. I flew over the coast of Greenland last year, on a rare perfectly clear sunny day, right over that massive glacier on the southeast coast. Go to Google satellite view, you’ll see the one Im talking about. hundreds of arena-sized icebergs calving into the ocean along about 50 miles of coastline. I was the only passenger who saw it – everybody else had their window shade down so they could sleep or look at their critically essential devices. I saw basically the same view, same scale, as the google satellite image. I felt so privileged. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/23 "2017-11-15T10:16:20Z")
My baby brother. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/24 "2017-11-15T12:17:15Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Undoubtedly the Caesarian birth of my daughter. > > It was fascinating and wonderful. Through all the blood and guts I got handed this little human being who I co-created. I don’t know about beautiful, but I remember holding my daughter for the first time. There was a semi-detached scientist part of my brain observing, and I remember thinking, “Wow, I wish I had someone taking a blood sample, because there are some seriously unusual hormones flooding me right now.” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/25 "2017-11-15T14:17:21Z")
Hoo-boy, a lot come to mind. A few: Victoria Falls [Matanuska Glacier](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/527c2241e4b0be62c9b89191/528e0e1de4b07984fcdb24ae/528e3a74e4b0ef8d92c6228d/1431460075897/_DSC4901_16244COPY-1928319457-O.jpg) in the fall sunshine Ngorngoro Crater [Antelope Canyon](https://lonelyplanetimages.imgix.net/a/g/hi/t/43b216ada01318f693220c49e72c6380-antelope-canyon.jpg?auto=enhance&w=770&h=430&fit=crop), AZ Most of the national parks, but especially Bryce, Katmai, Denali, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Yosemite The pyramids and sphinx of Giza The Matterhorn on a flawless sunny day Migrating animals on the Serengeti Plain I’ve really been fortunate in my life. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/26 "2017-11-15T15:45:23Z")
I like to go for long drives in the mid/late afternoon. Just this year I’ve gotten 4 doozies: A gibbous moon rising inside a rainbow A vivid deep orange and then red irisation on top of a rain cloud ORANGE rain right at sunset-it was falling between me and the setting sun A sky chock full of towering cumulus stretching to the horizon in a crystal clear sky as I drove west. Only gas concerns kept me from driving further. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/27 "2017-11-15T15:49:05Z")
Actually seeing my daughter for the first time. After a 16 month adoption process and only seeing pictures, I cried tears of joy the moment I first saw her and that was awhile before I even got to hold her. ---
**Author:** ![stolatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@stolatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolatt)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/28 "2017-11-15T16:04:48Z")
The Diego Rivera murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The view of Lake Michigan we found by accident by wanting to find out what would be at the end of a street called Red Apple Road. The military ceremony for my father in law. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/29 "2017-11-15T16:09:17Z")
1. First in the early morning atop of Smuggler’s Notch in the glades after a fresh snowfall. Perfect silence. As if I was the only person in the world. I held my breath to take it all in. Then laid down first tracks. 2. A pretty hull. A well trimmed sail. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/30 "2017-11-15T16:10:12Z")
My children, sleeping. A dark eastern Montana night sky filled with violet lightning from a dramatic horizon-to-horizon thunderstorm descending from the Rocky Mountain foothills. Cherry blossoms in the grounds of Zōjō-ji in Tokyo against gentle grey rain clouds, piled on the brown earth, dusting the Jizō statues. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/31 "2017-11-15T16:17:45Z")
Wow… My high school lover, when she arrived one evening in the fresh snow. The Milky Way, from a ferry traveling to Nantucket where I was about to start a job in an observatory. “E = m c^2” at the end of a long derivation of Einstein’s theory of special relativity, which we all had to work through. Sunlight through the woods on a hike, any number of times. Waves of wind propagating through a lazy summer field. How can one choose? ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/32 "2017-11-15T16:29:11Z")
The first thing that popped into my head… the last morning of a trip my wife and I took to Yellowstone several years ago. We were on the deck of the lodge at Lake Yellowstone having coffee. There was a slight mist in the air and the surface of the lake was perfectly still, like glass. I tried to snap a couple of photos but they don’t do justice to how amazing it looked IRL. For all of the incredible things we saw in Yellowstone on that trip, that’s one of the sights that really stands out in my memory. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/33 "2017-11-15T16:37:57Z")
A couple that came to mind, the night sky in the mountains in Afghanistan with not a single artificial light source for miles and earlier this summer when I was fly fishing around dawn and I looked up from tying on a fly to see a black bear crossing the stream right where I was standing, not 10 feet away. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/34 "2017-11-15T19:26:51Z")
The obvious answer is my wife and children, and I’m absolutely sincere when I say it’s them, but it’s also a bit hackneyed. I am a great lover of natural wonders, and I’ve found the Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, and Carlsbad Caverns to be breathtaking. But there’s one particular view I’ve always considered most beautiful, though it’s man-made. When driving east on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway at night, just past the Atlantic Avenue exit, you’re treated to this gorgeous panorama of the lit-up skyline of downtown Manhattan, with the lit-up Brooklyn Bridge to its right. I’ve always loved that view. One other thing that’s up there for me is the beauty of the Louisiana swamp, as seen from a boat tour in Breaux Bridge. The way the light filters through the canopy of trees, plus the hanging Spanish moss, and the big yellow lilies in the water…this was a tour we took on a two-week road trip that included stops in nine different states, and my entire family considers that to have been the highlight. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/35 "2017-11-15T20:13:10Z")
Well, Mr Dribble beat me to my first choice ;\>) but, after that, the Grand Canyon (from the bottom while rafting over 7 days) and Yosemite Valley. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/36 "2017-11-15T20:32:41Z")
I was on a long walk in Kyoto with my Japanese friend and we wandered into a temple; IIRC, it was called Chion-In and I was just staggered by the inner temple, which I was not allowed to enter, but could only gaze at. Unbelievably beautiful. Then there was this view of the pink hills as we drove into Sedona, AZ near sunset. Mind-blowingly beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/37 "2017-11-15T22:17:57Z")
I’ve never seen anything that I consider beautiful. I just don’t seem to be wired that way. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/38 "2017-11-15T22:22:32Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > I’ve never seen anything that I consider beautiful. I just don’t seem to be wired that way. How about awe-inspiring? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/39 "2017-11-15T22:28:57Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > How about awe-inspiring? Nope. Things I see tend to elicit little or no emotional reaction in me at all. (Smells and sounds have more of an impact - particularly _bad_ smells or sounds. But sights? Meh.) ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649/40 "2017-11-15T22:43:31Z")
This is something that I will remember on my death bed and smile. Summer of 1978. I had my first horse and a group of us at the stable I boarded at got together for a night time trail ride. There was a big full moon and millions of stars in the sky. We came to the edge of the woods where a huge meadow stretched out in front of us, sloping downhill to the big lake. we all just stopped and were totally silent. The hill was COVERED with fireflies. Literally covered. And everything- fireflies, moon and stars, were all reflected in the lake. I was breathless. I will never forget it. Ever. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-thing-you-have-ever-seen/801649.md?page=3)