There's nothing as significant as a human face. Nor as eloquent. We can never really know another person, except by our first glance at him. Because in that glance we know everything. Even though we're not always wise enough to unravel the knowledge.
Have you ever heard of the style of a soul? [...] Do you remember the famous philosopher who spoke of the style of civilization? He called it 'style'. He said it was the nearest word he could find for it. He said that every civilization has its own basic principle, one single, supreme, determining conception, and every endeavor of men within that civilization is true, unconsciously and irrevocably, to that one principle... I think that every human soul has a style of its own, also. Its one basic theme. You'll see it reflected in every thought, every act, every wish of that person. The one absolute, the one imperative in that living creature. Years of studying a man won't show it to you. His face will. You'd have to write volumes to describe a person. Think of his face. You need nothing else.
Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead
