Famous John Ruskin Quotations

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"No person who is not a great sculptor or painter can be an architect. If he is not a sculptor or painter, he can only be a builder."
by John Ruskin
"In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it. They must not do too much of it. And they must have a sense of success in it."
by John Ruskin
"You may either win your peace or buy it: win it, by resistance to evil; buy it, by compromise with evil."
by John Ruskin
"A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort."
by John Ruskin
"The child who desires education will be bettered by it; the child who dislikes it disgraced."
by John Ruskin
"The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it."
by John Ruskin
"The first test of a truly great man is his humility. By humility I don't mean doubt of his powers or hesitation in speaking his opinion, but merely an understanding of the relationship of what he can say and what he can do."
by John Ruskin
"The strength and power of a country depends absolutely on the quantity of good men and women in it."
by John Ruskin
"The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions."
by John Ruskin
"There is no wealth but life."
by John Ruskin
"To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education."
by John Ruskin
"We have seen when the earth had to be prepared for the habitation of man, a veil, as it were, of intermediate being was spread between him and its darkness, in which were joined in a subdued measure, the stability and insensibility of the earth, and the passion and perishing of mankind."
by John Ruskin
"What do we, as a nation, care about books? How much do you think we spend altogether on our libraries, public or private, as compared with what we spend on our horses?"
by John Ruskin
"When we build, let us think that we build for ever."
by John Ruskin
"He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas."
by John Ruskin
"I have not written in vain if I have heretofore done anything towards diminishing the reputation of the Renaissance landscape painting."
by John Ruskin
"Imaginary evils soon become real one by indulging our reflections on them."
by John Ruskin
"It is impossible, as impossible as to raise the dead, to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture. That which I have... insisted upon as the life of the whole, that spirit which is given only by the hand and eye of the workman, can never be recalled."
by John Ruskin
"Let every dawn of the morning be to you as the beginning of life. And let every setting of the sun be to you as its close. Then let everyone of these short lives leave its sure record of some kindly thing done for others; some good strength of knowledge gained for yourself."
by John Ruskin
"Man's only true happiness is to live in hope of something to be won by him. Reverence something to be worshipped by him, and love something to be cherished by him, forever."
by John Ruskin
"No person who is well bred, kind and modest is ever offensively plain; all real deformity means want for manners or of heart."
by John Ruskin
"No lying knight or lying priest ever prospered in any age, but especially not in the dark ones. Men prospered then only in following an openly declared purpose, and preaching candidly beloved and trusted creeds."
by John Ruskin
"No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish."
by John Ruskin
"Nearly all the powerful people of this age are unbelievers, the best of them in doubt and misery, the most in plodding hesitation, doing as well as they can, what practical work lies at hand."
by John Ruskin
"Nothing is ever done beautifully which is done in rivalship: or nobly, which is done in pride."
by John Ruskin
"Some slaves are scoured to their work by whips, others by their restlessness and ambition."
by John Ruskin
"Punishment is the last and the least effective instrument in the hands of the legislator for the prevention of crime."
by John Ruskin
"Tell me what you like and I'll tell you what you are."
by John Ruskin
"Men don't and can't live by exchanging articles, but by producing them. They don't live by trade, but by work. Give up that foolish and vain title of Trades Unions; and take that of laborers Unions."
by John Ruskin
"One who does not know when to die, does not know how to live."
by John Ruskin
"No art can be noble which is incapable of expressing thought, and no art is capable of expressing thought which does not change."
by John Ruskin
"No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple."
by John Ruskin
"It is his restraint that is honorable to a person, not their liberty."
by John Ruskin
"Fit yourself for the best society, and then, never enter it."
by John Ruskin
"Civilization is the making of civil persons."
by John Ruskin
"An architect should live as little in cities as a painter. Send him to our hills, and let him study there what nature understands by a buttress, and what by a dome."
by John Ruskin
"All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul."
by John Ruskin
"All great and beautiful work has come of first gazing without shrinking into the darkness."
by John Ruskin
"All that we call ideal in Greek or any other art, because to us it is false and visionary, was, to the makers of it, true and existent."
by John Ruskin
"An unimaginative person can neither be reverent or kind."
by John Ruskin
"Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness."
by John Ruskin
"Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning."
by John Ruskin
"...in order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work."
by John Ruskin
"A book worth reading is worth buying."
by John Ruskin
"A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money."
by John Ruskin
"A thing is worth what it can do for you, not what you choose to pay for it."
by John Ruskin
"All violent feelings have the same effect. They produce in us a falseness in all our impressions of external things, which I would generally characterize as the pathetic fallacy."
by John Ruskin
"Beauty deprived of its proper foils and adjuncts ceases to be enjoyed as beauty, just as light deprived of all shadows ceases to be enjoyed as light."
by John Ruskin
"Books are divided into two classes, the books of the hour and the books of all time."
by John Ruskin
"Cursing is invoking the assistance of a spirit to help you inflict suffering. Swearing on the other hand, is invoking, only the witness of a spirit to an statement you wish to make."
by John Ruskin
"Do not think of your faults, still less of other's faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes."
by John Ruskin
"Doing is the great thing, for if people resolutely do what is right, they come in time to like doing it."
by John Ruskin
"Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty."
by John Ruskin
"Every great person is always being helped by everybody; for their gift is to get good out of all things and all persons."
by John Ruskin
"Every increased possession loads us with new weariness."
by John Ruskin
"Give a little love to a child, and you get a great deal back."
by John Ruskin
"Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts--the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art."
by John Ruskin
"Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts - the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art."
by John Ruskin
"He that has truth in his heart need never fear the want of persuasion on his tongue"
by John Ruskin
"He thinks by infection, catching an opinion like a cold."
by John Ruskin
"How long most people would look at the best book before they would give the price of a large turbot for it?"
by John Ruskin
"I believe the first test of a truly great man is humility"
by John Ruskin
"I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility."
by John Ruskin
"I believe the right question to ask, respecting all ornament, is simply this; was it done with enjoyment, was the carver happy while he was about it?"
by John Ruskin
"I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility."
by John Ruskin
"If a great thing can be done, it can be done easily, but this ease is like the of ease of a tree blossoming after long years of gathering strength."
by John Ruskin
"In every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong honor that try to imitate it, and your faults will drop off like dead leaves when their time comes."
by John Ruskin
"In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it."
by John Ruskin
"In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed They must be fit for it. They must not do too much of it. And they must have a sense of success in it."
by John Ruskin
"In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes."
by John Ruskin
"It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated; far more difficult to sacrifice skill and easy execution in the proper place, than to expand both indiscriminately."
by John Ruskin
"It is impossible, as impossible as to raise the dead, to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture. That which I have insisted upon as the life of the whole, that spirit which is given only by the hand and eye of the workman, can never be recalled."
by John Ruskin
"It is in this power of saying everything, and yet saying nothing too plainly, that the perfection of art consists."
by John Ruskin
"It is not how much one makes but to what purpose one spends."
by John Ruskin
"It is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star. It is the poetry of Nature; it is that which uplifts the spirit within us."
by John Ruskin
"It is written on the arched sky It looks out from every star It is the poetry of Nature It is that which uplifts the spirit within us."
by John Ruskin
"It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect."
by John Ruskin
"Large fortunes are all founded either on the occupation of land, or lending or the taxation of labor."
by John Ruskin
"Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close."
by John Ruskin
"Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed in our prisons."
by John Ruskin
"Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books."
by John Ruskin
"Men were not intended to work with the accuracy of tools, to be precise and perfect in all their actions."
by John Ruskin
"Men cannot not live by exchanging articles, but producing them. They live by work not trade."
by John Ruskin
"Modern travelling is not travelling at all; it is merely being sent to a place, and very little different from becoming a parcel."
by John Ruskin
"Modern education has devoted itself to the teaching of impudence, and then we complain that we can no longer control our mobs."
by John Ruskin
"Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder."
by John Ruskin
"Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery."
by John Ruskin
"Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities."
by John Ruskin
"No good is ever done to society by the pictorial representation of its diseases."
by John Ruskin
"Not only is there but one way of doing things rightly, but there is only one way of seeing them, and that is, seeing the whole of them."
by John Ruskin
"Nothing can be beautiful which is not true."
by John Ruskin
"Of all the pulpits from which human voice is ever sent forth, there is none from which it reaches so far as from the grave."
by John Ruskin
"People are eternally divided into two classes, the believer, builder, and praiser, and the unbeliever, destroyer and critic."
by John Ruskin
"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort."
by John Ruskin
"Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort."
by John Ruskin
"Quality is never an accident it is always the result of intelligent effort."
by John Ruskin
"Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance."
by John Ruskin
"Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless: peacocks and lilies for instance."
by John Ruskin
"Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them."
by John Ruskin
"Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them."
by John Ruskin


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