Quotes By John Ruskin

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

Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.

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.

When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.

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

One who does not know when to die, does not know how to live.

He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

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.

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

The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.

Men cannot not live by exchanging articles, but producing them. They live by work not trade.

Large fortunes are all founded either on the occupation of land, or lending or the taxation of labor.

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

The child who desires education will be bettered by it; the child who dislikes it disgraced.

Nothing can be beautiful which is not true.

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

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

Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery.

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

In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.

Modern travelling is not travelling at all; it is merely being sent to a place, and very little different from becoming a parcel.

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

An unimaginative person can neither be reverent or kind.

A book worth reading is worth buying.

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

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

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

There are no such things as Flowers there are only gladdened Leaves.

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

Imaginary evils soon become real one by indulging our reflections on them.