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 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.”

— John Ruskin

Architecture

All Quotes by John Ruskin

“Some slaves are scoured to their work by whips, others by their restlessness and ambition.”

— John Ruskin

Work

“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

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

— John Ruskin

Peace

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

— John Ruskin

Art

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

— John Ruskin

Beauty

“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.”

— John Ruskin

Good

“No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish.”

— John Ruskin

Great

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

— John Ruskin

Anger

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

— John Ruskin

Education

“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

Happiness

“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

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

— John Ruskin

Nature

“The first condition of education is being able to put someone to wholesome and meaningful work.”

— John Ruskin

Education

“We require from buildings two kinds of goodness: first, the doing their practical duty well: then that they be graceful and pleasing in doing it.”

— John Ruskin

Architecture

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

— John Ruskin

Great

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

— John Ruskin

Music

“It is in this power of saying everything, and yet saying nothing too plainly, that the perfection of art consists.”

— 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

“Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning.”

— John Ruskin

Work

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

— John Ruskin

Great