Quote
A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness.
Note
Keats opens his long poem with this assertion about beauty's permanence. Unlike fleeting pleasures, true beauty grows in memory and meaning over time. This is an internal standard—the joy beauty brings does not diminish but increases within us. Even as physical things fade, their loveliness remains, preserved and enriched in the mind and heart. It's a hopeful claim about the enduring power of aesthetic experience.