People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
Kübler-Ross gives us permission to stop performing for an audience—she suggests that external validation is merely the easy version of ourselves. The real test comes when nobody's watching, when life dims, and we discover whether we've built something genuine in our own conscience. A parent grieving a child's illness, for instance, reveals their actual character not through brave words but through whether they can still find meaning and extend kindness when all their usual sources of comfort have vanished. Beauty, she insists, isn't what others applaud; it's what sustains us when applause becomes impossible.