“If a man  is tall, then clearly he has authority.  If he has a gorgeous voice, then his words are also golden.  If he looks…remote and spiritual, then so is the man within.  Thus the visual society.  Except that just occasionally God amuses himself by dealing us an entirely different man inside the shell.  Some founder and are rumpled.  Others expand until they meet the challenge of their looks.  And a few do neither, but wear their splendours like a favour granted from above, blandly accepting the homage that is not their due.”

-John Le Carre, Secret Pilgrim