J

John Ruskin

61 quotes

John Ruskin (1819–1900) was an English art critic, social thinker, and philanthropist whose ideas about art, architecture, and society profoundly influenced the Victorian and Edwardian eras. His passionate advocacy for beauty, craftsmanship, and social justice inspired movements ranging from the Arts and Crafts to early environmentalism.

“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

Nature

All Quotes 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.”

— John Ruskin

Beauty

“No good is ever done to society by the pictorial representation of its diseases.”

— John Ruskin

Society

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

— John Ruskin

Art

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

— John Ruskin

Best

“No art can be noble which is incapable of expressing thought, and no art is capable of expressing thought which does not change.”

— John Ruskin

Art

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

— John Ruskin

Art

“Men were not intended to work with the accuracy of tools, to be precise and perfect in all their actions.”

— John Ruskin

Work

“How long most people would look at the best book before they would give the price of a large turbot for it?”

— John Ruskin

Best

“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.”

— John Ruskin

Age

“It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.”

— John Ruskin

Architecture

“Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.”

— John Ruskin

Beauty

“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.”

— John Ruskin

Art

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

— John Ruskin

Great

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

— John Ruskin

Anger

“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

Great

“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.”

— John Ruskin

Men

“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

Education

“Doing is the great thing, for if people resolutely do what is right, they come in time to like doing it.”

— John Ruskin

Great

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

— John Ruskin

Men

“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