Sartre could render his face attractive through the force of his intellect

Evidence

Raymond Aron wrote of Sartre in his schooldays that ‘his ugliness disappeared as soon as he began to speak, as soon as his intelligence erased the pimples and swellings of his face’. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 49

Categorization

• CANDY: Delightful, tweetable anecdote — the ugly philosopher whose mind erases his ugliness. Low-context, elevator-conversation friendly.
• XREF: connects to: Sartre’s charisma derived more from intellectual energy than physical appearance — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 49