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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.

“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

All Quotes 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.”

— John Ruskin

Age

“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

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

— John Ruskin

Art

“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.”

— John Ruskin

Success

“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

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

— John Ruskin

Great

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

— John Ruskin

Experience

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

— John Ruskin

Society

“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

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

— John Ruskin

Art

“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 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.”

— John Ruskin

Great

“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

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

— John Ruskin

Music

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

— John Ruskin

Education

“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

“All great and beautiful work has come of first gazing without shrinking into the darkness.”

— John Ruskin

Great

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

— John Ruskin

Family