John Ruskin's Quotes

Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth.

John Ruskin

Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.

John Ruskin

Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.

John Ruskin

All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul.

John Ruskin

Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.

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.

John Ruskin

Give a little love to a child, and you get a great deal back.

John Ruskin

Skill is the unified force of experience, intellect and passion in their operation.

John Ruskin

To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education.

John Ruskin

Modern education has devoted itself to the teaching of impudence, and then we complain that we can no longer control our mobs.

John Ruskin

Education is the leading of human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them.

John Ruskin

The first duty of government is to see that people have food, fuel, and clothes. The second, that they have means of moral and intellectual education.

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.

John Ruskin

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world... to see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.

John Ruskin

You might sooner get lightning out of incense smoke than true action or passion out of your modern English religion.

John Ruskin

To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.

John Ruskin

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.

John Ruskin

The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most.

John Ruskin

Whether for life or death, do your own work well.

John Ruskin

The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions.

John Ruskin

A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.

John Ruskin

I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility.

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.

John Ruskin

A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort.

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.

John Ruskin

The strength and power of a country depends absolutely on the quantity of good men and women in it.

John Ruskin

Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.

John Ruskin

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

John Ruskin

The sky is the part of creation in which nature has done for the sake of pleasing man.

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.

John Ruskin

You may either win your peace or buy it: win it, by resistance to evil; buy it, by compromise with evil.

John Ruskin

The principle of all successful effort is to try to do not what is absolutely the best, but what is easily within our power, and suited for our temperament and condition.

John Ruskin

There is never vulgarity in a whole truth, however commonplace. It may be unimportant or painful. It cannot be vulgar. Vulgarity is only in concealment of truth, or in affectation.

John Ruskin

He that would be angry and sin not, must not be angry with anything but sin.

John Ruskin

There is no wealth but life.

John Ruskin