John Ruskin Quotes

Powerful John Ruskin for Daily Growth

About John Ruskin

John Ruskin (February 8, 1819 – January 20, 1900) was a renowned English art critic, social reformer, and philosopher of the Victorian era. Born in London to a wealthy family, Ruskin's early life was marked by privilege but also tragedy; he lost his mother at an early age, and his father, a prominent diplomat, died when John was seven years old. This left Ruskin largely raised by his sister-in-law, Margaret Cox, who had a significant influence on his formative years. Ruskin's intellectual curiosity led him to study art at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and Oxford University. However, he found little satisfaction in the academic rigor and instead found solace in nature, landscape, and architecture, which would become central themes in his works. His love for Gothic architecture developed during a trip to Wales with his family, where he encountered the magnificent ruins of Tintern Abbey. In 1843, Ruskin published his first major work, "The Seven Lamps of Architecture," which argued that architecture should be inspired by moral and spiritual values rather than purely aesthetic considerations. This book established him as a leading critic in the art world. In 1857, he published "Modern Painters," a seven-volume study of Western painting, particularly emphasizing the importance of naturalism and truth to nature. Ruskin was also a prominent social reformer. He advocated for workers' rights, women's education, and the preservation of the environment – ideas far ahead of his time. One of his most famous works in this regard is "Unto This Last" (1862), where he argued that utility should be the primary consideration in economic matters, not wealth or power. Despite his many accomplishments, Ruskin's personal life was marred by mental health struggles, including bouts of severe depression. His marriage to Effie Gray ended in scandal and divorce due to Effie's assertions of Ruskin's failure to consummate their relationship. Ruskin's legacy continues to influence art, architecture, and social thought today. He is remembered as a visionary thinker who challenged the norms of his time and left an indelible mark on Western culture.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The truth is more valuable than the greatest treasures that can be found on Earth."

This quote by John Ruskin emphasizes that truth holds a higher value than any material wealth or treasure one could find on Earth. It suggests that while riches are fleeting and often superficial, the pursuit of truth is enduring and enriching. The pursuit of truth leads to wisdom, understanding, and personal growth, making it infinitely more valuable than physical possessions.

"The highest proof of the spirit is love."

This quote by John Ruskin suggests that the ultimate demonstration or manifestation of a person's spirit, soul, or essential nature is their capacity for love. In other words, love is not merely an emotion but serves as evidence of one's higher moral and spiritual qualities. It indicates selflessness, empathy, understanding, and kindness - characteristics often associated with spiritual growth. This quote underscores the importance of love in shaping our character, relationships, and interactions with others.

"Go to Nature in all singleness of heart and ask herself which are the lines on which to draw your design."

This quote by John Ruskin encourages artists, designers, and creators to seek inspiration from nature itself, drawing guidance and principles from its organic forms, patterns, and structures. The idea is that by immersing oneself in the natural world with an open mind and a pure heart, one can find the most authentic and harmonious designs for their creative pursuits. It's a reminder that nature serves as a timeless and enduring source of inspiration for artistry and design.

"Art and nature are allies, and nature uses art, and often learns Sansculottely from it."

In this quote, John Ruskin suggests a deep interconnectedness between Art and Nature. He implies that Art serves as an ally to Nature, enhancing and refining its beauty. At the same time, Nature also learns from Art, implying that artistic creativity can draw inspiration from the natural world, while simultaneously improving upon it, much like the sans-culotte, a French working class revolutionary who rejected old aristocratic norms in favor of new progressive ideas, symbolizing a transformative and modern influence.

"When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think, as well as we can, how they may see cause to bless us for it."

This quote by John Ruskin encourages a long-term perspective when building or creating something. He suggests that the work should not be done solely for immediate pleasure or utility, but rather with consideration for future generations who will appreciate and benefit from it. In essence, Ruskin is advocating for thoughtful, enduring, and impactful work that stands the test of time and leaves a positive legacy.

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

Love, True Happiness, Worshipped

I believe the right question to ask, respecting all ornament, is simply this; was it done with enjoyment, was the carver happy while he was about it?

- John Ruskin

Happy, Question, Respecting

The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most.

- John Ruskin

Minds, Most, Which, Colour

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

- John Ruskin

Person, Only, Great Person, Great Thing

There is never vulgarity in a whole truth, however commonplace. It may be unimportant or painful. It cannot be vulgar. Vulgarity is only in concealment of truth, or in affectation.

- John Ruskin

May, However, Vulgarity, Commonplace

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

- John Ruskin

Experience, Skill, Intellect, Operation

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

- John Ruskin

Work, Art, Living, Chiefly

Men don't and can't live by exchanging articles, but by producing them. They don't live by trade, but by work. Give up that foolish and vain title of Trades Unions; and take that of laborers Unions.

- John Ruskin

Work, Give, Unions, Trades

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

- John Ruskin

Peace, May, Either, Compromise

No lying knight or lying priest ever prospered in any age, but especially not in the dark ones. Men prospered then only in following an openly declared purpose, and preaching candidly beloved and trusted creeds.

- John Ruskin

Purpose, Preaching, Priest, Knight

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, Doing, Require, Pleasing

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.

- John Ruskin

Love, Success, Expect, Work Together

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

- John Ruskin

Either, Occupation, Large, Fortunes

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, Mobs, Devoted, Impudence

The strength and power of a country depends absolutely on the quantity of good men and women in it.

- John Ruskin

Strength, Country, Quantity, Good Men

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world... to see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.

- John Ruskin

Religion, Soul, Clearly, Prophecy

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

- John Ruskin

Money, Thought, Deal, Great Deal

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

- John Ruskin

Love, Family, Give, Great Deal

The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.

- John Ruskin

More, Vulgar, Stands, Unintelligible

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

Which, Given, Workman, Recalled

The principle of all successful effort is to try to do not what is absolutely the best, but what is easily within our power, and suited for our temperament and condition.

- John Ruskin

Effort, Within, Principle, Suited

Every great person is always being helped by everybody; for their gift is to get good out of all things and all persons.

- John Ruskin

Gift, Always, Everybody, All Things

An architect should live as little in cities as a painter. Send him to our hills, and let him study there what nature understands by a buttress, and what by a dome.

- John Ruskin

Nature, Study, Cities, Hills

All violent feelings have the same effect. They produce in us a falseness in all our impressions of external things, which I would generally characterize as the pathetic fallacy.

- John Ruskin

Impressions, Violent, Which, External

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

- John Ruskin

Nature, Rain, Exhilarating, Refreshing

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, Thought, Which, Incapable

Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.

- John Ruskin

Inspirational, Beginning, Setting Sun

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

Humility, Doubt, Test, Powers

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

- John Ruskin

Art, Nothing, Too, Perfection

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

- John Ruskin

Music, Teacher, Disorder, Depraved

No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.

- John Ruskin

Simple, Architecture, Which, Haughty

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.

- John Ruskin

Some, Cheaper, Lawful, Hardly

All books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time.

- John Ruskin

Hour, Books, Classes, Divisible

No person who is well bred, kind and modest is ever offensively plain; all real deformity means want for manners or of heart.

- John Ruskin

Kind, Bred, Means, Deformity

Men were not intended to work with the accuracy of tools, to be precise and perfect in all their actions.

- John Ruskin

Perfect, Were, Intended, Precise

Whereas it has long been known and declared that the poor have no right to the property of the rich, I wish it also to be known and declared that the rich have no right to the property of the poor.

- John Ruskin

Rich, I Wish, Been, Whereas

That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings.

- John Ruskin

Country, Number, Which, Richest

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

- John Ruskin

Fact, Better, Tells, Richest

Nothing is ever done beautifully which is done in rivalship: or nobly, which is done in pride.

- John Ruskin

Nothing, Which, Ever, Nobly

Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed in our prisons.

- John Ruskin

Let Us, Reform, Schools, Prisons

The art which we may call generally art of the wayside, as opposed to that which is the business of men's lives, is, in the best sense of the word, Grotesque.

- John Ruskin

Art, Which, Opposed, Wayside

An unimaginative person can neither be reverent or kind.

- John Ruskin

Kind, Person, Reverent, Unimaginative

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, Light, Proper, Deprived

It is his restraint that is honorable to a person, not their liberty.

- John Ruskin

Liberty, Person, His, Honorable

Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books.

- John Ruskin

Waste, Hours, Very, Ought

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

- John Ruskin

Great, Great Man, His, I Believe

Punishment is the last and the least effective instrument in the hands of the legislator for the prevention of crime.

- John Ruskin

Hands, Punishment, Effective, Prevention

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

Work, Needed, May, Order

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

- John Ruskin

Art, Head, Which, Together

To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.

- John Ruskin

Poetry, See, Clearly, Prophecy

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

Person, Painter, Sculptor, Builder

The first duty of a state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed and educated till it attains years of discretion.

- John Ruskin

Discretion, Till, Fed, Clothed

Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities.

- John Ruskin

Mind, Natural, Almost, Cultivation

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

- John Ruskin

Reward, Person, Highest, Toil

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

- John Ruskin

Nature, Sky, Which, Creation

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

- John Ruskin

Work, Beautiful, Gazing, Shrinking

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

- John Ruskin

Important, Most, Which, Imperfect

Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts - the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.

- John Ruskin

Art, Deeds, Great Nations, Manuscripts

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

- John Ruskin

Small, Pretty, Himself, Wrapped

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

Work, Doing, Practical, Hand

Cursing is invoking the assistance of a spirit to help you inflict suffering. Swearing on the other hand, is invoking, only the witness of a spirit to an statement you wish to make.

- John Ruskin

Other, Swearing, Cursing, Hand

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?

- John Ruskin

Think, Nation, Private, Compared

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.

- John Ruskin

Beautiful, Remember, Most, Useless

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

- John Ruskin

Brainy, Result, Always, Accident

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

- John Ruskin

Work, Trade, Producing, Articles

Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.

- John Ruskin

Strength, Beauty, Patience, Endurance

Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.

- John Ruskin

New, Possession, Increased, Weariness

Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.

- John Ruskin

Light, Come, While, Lest

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

- John Ruskin

Doing, Like, Great Thing, Resolutely

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

- John Ruskin

Society, Ever, Diseases, Representation

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

Think, Drop, Still, Imitate

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

- John Ruskin

Reflections, Evils, Imaginary

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, Fuel, Means, Clothes

It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated; far more difficult to sacrifice skill and easy execution in the proper place, than to expand both indiscriminately.

- John Ruskin

Execution, More, Difficult, Skill

The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.

- John Ruskin

Words, Deception, Essence, Lying

A book worth reading is worth buying.

- John Ruskin

Book, Reading, Buying, Worth Reading

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

- John Ruskin

Flowers, Leaves, Things, Such Things

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

- John Ruskin

Mountains, Beginning, End, Scenery

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

- John Ruskin

Art, Study, Ideal, Seeking

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

- John Ruskin

Education, Will, Desires, Dislikes

Civilization is the making of civil persons.

- John Ruskin

Making, Persons, Civil

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

- John Ruskin

Travelling, Very, Parcel, Sent

The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it.

- John Ruskin

Price, Sign, Bought, Slavery

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

- John Ruskin

Human Being, However, Ever, Fish

Not only is there but one way of doing things rightly, but there is only one way of seeing them, and that is, seeing the whole of them.

- John Ruskin

Doing, Seeing, One Way, Only One Way

Books are divided into two classes, the books of the hour and the books of all time.

- John Ruskin

Hour, Books, Classes, Divided

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

- John Ruskin

Anger, Must, Would, Sin

The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions.

- John Ruskin

Work, Demonstrations, Appearances

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

- John Ruskin

Education, Condition, Meaningful

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

- John Ruskin

Mistakes, General, Bottom, Pride

I have not written in vain if I have heretofore done anything towards diminishing the reputation of the Renaissance landscape painting.

- John Ruskin

Vain, Diminishing, Written

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, Sky, Which, Written

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

- John Ruskin

Lightning, Might, Sooner, Action

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

- John Ruskin

Work, Some, Slaves, Ambition

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

- John Ruskin

Education, Beginning, Honesty Is

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, Other, Greek, Visionary

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

- John Ruskin

Number, His, Works, Greatest Number

There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

- John Ruskin

Bad, Only, Different Kinds, Different

To know anything well involves a profound sensation of ignorance.

- John Ruskin

Ignorance, Sensation, Profound

Taste is the only morality. Tell me what you like and I'll tell you what you are.

- John Ruskin

Tell, Morality, Like, Taste

How long most people would look at the best book before they would give the price of a large turbot for it?

- John Ruskin

Give, Before, Large, Price

Education is the leading of human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them.

- John Ruskin

Education, Making, Leading, Souls

A thing is worth what it can do for you, not what you choose to pay for it.

- John Ruskin

Choose, Pay, Thing, Worth

To give alms is nothing unless you give thought also.

- John Ruskin

Thought, Give, Unless, Also

It is not how much one makes but to what purpose one spends.

- John Ruskin

Purpose, How, Makes, How Much

When we build, let us think that we build for ever.

- John Ruskin

Think, Let Us, Ever, Build

There is no wealth but life.

- John Ruskin

Life, Wealth

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