John Ruskin Quotes
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We have much studied and much perfected, of late, the great civilized invention of the division of labour; only we give it a false name. It is not, truly speaking, the labour that is divided; but the men.
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All great and beautiful work has come of first gazing without shrinking into the darkness.
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In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.
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I am far more provoked at being thought foolish by foolish people, than pleased at being thought sensible by sensible people; and the average proportion of the numbers of each is not to my advantage.
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How can man understand God, since he does not yet understand his own mind, with which he endeavors to understand Him? The infinity of God is not mysterious, it is only unfathomable - not concealed, but incomprehensible. It is a clear infinity - the darkness of the pure, unsearchable sea.
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Men cannot not live by exchanging articles, but producing them. They live by work not trade.
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There is no music in a “rest” that I know of, but there's the making of music in it. And people are always missing that part of the life melody.
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Without perfect sympathy with the animals around them, no gentleman's education, no Christian education, could be of any possible use.
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It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.
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To give alms is nothing unless you give thought also.
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What do we, as a nation, care about books? How much do you think we spend altogether on our libraries, public or private, as compared with what we spend on our horses?
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Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning.
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There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey.
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The great cry that rises from all our manufacturing cities, louder than the furnace blast, is all in very deed for this -- that we manufacture everything there except men.
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He only is advancing in life whose heart is getting softer, whose blood warmer, whose brain quicker, whose spirit is entering into living peace. And the men who have this life in them are the true lords or kings of the earth - they, and they only.
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Nothing can be beautiful which is not true.
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Another of the strange and evil tendencies of the present day is the decoration of the railroad station... There was never more flagrant nor impertinent folly than the smallest portion of ornament in anything connected with the railroads... Railroad architecture has or would have a dignity of its own if it were only left to its work.
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Every great person is always being helped by everybody; for their gift is to get good out of all things and all persons.
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Civilization is the making of civil persons.
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He that would be angry and sin not, must not be angry with anything but sin.
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There is nothing so small but that we may honor God by asking His guidance of it, or insult Him by taking it into our own hands.
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A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.
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Imaginary evils soon become real one by indulging our reflections on them.
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All great art is the expression of man's delight in God's work, not his own.