John Ruskin Quotes About Greatness

Quotes about: Greatness

• I believe that the first test of a great man is his humility. I don't mean by humility, doubt of his power. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not of them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful.

  John Ruskin

  Believe, Mean, Humility

• I fear uniformity. You cannot manufacture great men any more than you can manufacture gold.

  John Ruskin

  Greatness, Men, Gold

• The measure of any great civilization is its cities and a measure of a city's greatness is to be found in the quality of its public spaces, its parks and squares.

  John Ruskin

  Greatness, Squares, Civilization

• All that is good in art is the expression of one soul talking to another, and is precious according to the greatness of the soul that utters it.

  John Ruskin

  Art, Greatness, Expression

  John Ruskin (1853). “The Stones of Venice: The fall”, p.188

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

  John Ruskin

  Greatness, Effort, Done

• I believe that there is no test of greatness in periods, nations or men more sure than the development, among them or in them, of a noble grotesque, and no test of comparative smallness or limitation, of one kind or another, more sure than the absence of grotesque invention, or incapability of understanding it.

  John Ruskin

  Believe, Greatness, Men

  John Ruskin (2013). “The Stones of Venice -: The Fall”, p.158, Cosimo, Inc.

• Greatness is not a teachable nor gainable thing, but the expression of the mind of a God-made great man.

  John Ruskin

  Greatness, Men, Expression

  John Ruskin (1868). “Selections from the Writings of John Ruskin”, p.346

• 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.

  John Ruskin

  Greatness, Mind, Affectionate

  John Ruskin (1868). “pt. VI: Of leaf beauty. pt. VII: Of cloud beauty. pts. VIII-IX: Of ideas of relation”, p.186

• Anything which elevates the mind is sublime. Greatness of matter, space, power, virtue or beauty, are all sublime.

  John Ruskin

  Greatness, Space, Mind

• Nobody cares much at heart about Titian, only there is a strange undercurrent of everlasting murmur about his name, which means the deep consent of all great men that he is greater than they.

  John Ruskin

  Heart, Mean, Greatness

  'The Two Paths' (1859) lecture 2

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