John Ruskin Quotes
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He who has learned what is commonly considered the whole art of painting, that is, the art of representing any natural object faithfully, has as yet only learned the language by which his thoughts are to be expressed.
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There is in every animal's eye a dim image and gleam of humanity, a flash of strange light through which their life looks out and up to our great mystery of command over them, and claims the fellowship of the creature if not of the soul.
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He who is not actively kind is cruel!
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Sky is the part of creation in which Nature has done more for the sake of pleasing man, more for the sole and evident purpose of talking to him and teaching him, than in any other of her works, and it is just the part in which we least attend to her.
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No day is without its innocent hope.
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It is not the church we want, but the sacrifice; not the emotion of admiration, but the act of adoration; not the gift, but the giving.
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You will never love art well until you love what she mirrors better.
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... the weakest among us has a gift, however seemingly trivial, which is peculiar to him, and which, worthily used, will be a gift also to his race forever.
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Wherever men are noble, they love bright colour; and wherever they can live healthily, bright colour is given them—in sky, sea, flowers, and living creatures.
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Imperfection is in some sort essential to all that we know in life.
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I cannot but think it an evil sign of a people when their houses are built to last for one generation only.
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What is poetry? The suggestion, by the imagination, of noble grounds for the noble emotions.
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It takes a great deal of living to get a little deal of learning.
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Greatness is the aggregation of minuteness; nor can its sublimity be felt truthfully by any mind unaccustomed to the affectionate watching of what is least.
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The constant duty of every man to his fellows is to ascertain his own powers and special gifts, and to strengthen them for the help of others.
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The very cheapness of literature is making even wise people forget that if a book is worth reading, it is worth buying. No book is worth anything which is not worth much; nor is it serviceable, until it has been read, and re-read, and loved, and loved again; and marked, so that you can refer to the passages you want in it.
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God never imposes a duty without giving time to do it.
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There are many religions, but there is only one morality.
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You cannot get anything out of nature or from God by gambling; only out of your neighbor.
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Science deals exclusively with things as they are in themselves; and art exclusively with things as they affect the human sense and human soul.
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Your labor only may be sold, your soul must not.
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The beauty of the animal form is in exact proportion to the amount of moral and intellectual virtue expressed by it.
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Science lives only in quiet places, and with odd people, mostly poor.
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The proof of a thing's being right is that it has power over the heart; that it excites us, wins us, or helps us.