Marillion, "Beautiful"

As a reference for Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.21

I recall playing this song for someone when it was first released, who immediately described it as "sentimental sh#t written for people who can't be bothered to become popular. It's no wonder it never broke the top ten in the UK charts."

I smiled on the inside, because that was precisely the point.

Marillion, "Beautiful", from Afraid of Sunlight (1995)

https://www.google.com/search?q=marillion+beautiful&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1-ab

Everybody knows we live in a world
Where they give bad names to beautiful things
Everybody knows we live in a world
Where we don't give beautiful things a second glance
Heaven only knows we live in a world
Where what we call beautiful is just something on sale
People laughing behind their hands
While the fragile and the sensitive are given no chance

And the leaves turn from red to brown
To be trodden down
To be trodden down
And the leaves turn from red to brown
Fall to the ground
Fall to the ground

We don't have to live in a world
Where we give bad names to beautiful things
We should live in a beautiful world
We should give beautiful a second chance

And the leaves fall from red to brown
To be trodden down
To be trodden down
And the leaves turn green to red to brown
Fall to the ground
And get kicked around

You strong enough to be?
Feel the faith to be?
Sane enough to be?
Honest enough to stay?
Don't have to be the same
Don't have to be this way
C'mon and sign your name
You wild enough to remain beautiful?
Beautiful

And the leaves turn from red to brown
To be trodden down
Trodden down
And we all fall green to red to brown
Fall to the ground
But we can turn it around

You strong enough to be?
Why don't you stand up and say?
Give yourself a break
They'll laugh at you anyway
So why don't you stand up and be
Beautiful?

Black, white, red, gold, and brown
We're stuck in this world
Nowhere to go
Turnin' around
What are you so afraid of?
Show us what you're made of
Be yourself and be beautiful
Beautiful