John Ruskin Quotes - Page 17

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In one point of view, Gothic is not only the best, but the only rational architecture, as being that which can fit itself most easily to all services, vulgar or noble.

John Ruskin

Views, Noble, Gothic

John Ruskin (1854). “On the nature of Gothic architecture: and herein of the true functions of the workman in art. Being the greater part of the 6th chapter of the 2nd vol. of 'Stones of Venice'. [48 p.].”, p.18

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

John Ruskin

Book, Long, People

John Ruskin (2006). “Sesame and Lillies: Three Lectures”, p.75, Cosimo, Inc.

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To yield reverence to another, to hold ourselves and our lives at his disposal, is not slavery; often, it is the noblest state in which a man can live in this world.

John Ruskin

Men, Yield, World

John Ruskin (2013). “Selections and Essays”, p.225, Courier Corporation

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... A power of obtaining veracity in the representation of material and tangible things, which, within certain limits and conditions, is unimpeachable, has now been placed in the hands of all men, almost without labour. (1853)

John Ruskin

Men, Hands, Tangible

John Ruskin “The stones of Venice (cont'd) Seven lamps of architecture. Lectures on architecture and painting, delivered at Edinburgh in Nov. 1853. An inquiry into some of the conditions at present affecting the study of architecture in our schools”

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In the range of inorganic nature. I doubt if any object can be found more perfectly beautiful than a fresh, deep snowdrift, seen under warm light.

John Ruskin

Beautiful, Nature, Light

John Ruskin (1871). “Selections from the Writings of John Ruskin”, p.91

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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.

John Ruskin

Heart, Winning, Helping

John Ruskin (2015). “Lectures on Architecture and Painting”, p.12, John Ruskin

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In old times men used their powers of painting to show the objects of faith, in later times they use the objects of faith to show their powers of painting.

John Ruskin

Power, Men, Use

John Ruskin (1853). “The Stones of Venice: The fall”, p.108

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God will put up with a great many things in the human heart, but there is one thing that He will not put up with in it--a second place. He who offers God a second place, offers Him no place.

John Ruskin

Heart, Great Men, Gods Will

John Ruskin, Louisa Caroline Tuthill (1865). “Precious Thoughts”, p.101

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There is nothing so great or so goodly in creation, but that it is a mean symbol of the gospel of Christ, and of the things He has prepared for them that love Him.

John Ruskin

Mean, Christ, Creation

John Ruskin (1853). “The Stones of Venice: The fall”, p.155

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I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face.

John Ruskin

Art, Pain, Two

Fors Clavigera Letter 79, 18 June 1877. This comment was the basis for Whistler's 1878 libel suit against Ruskin.

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As in the instances of alchemy, astrology, witchcraft, and other such popular creeds, political economy, has a plausible idea at the root of it.

John Ruskin

Ideas, Roots, Astrology

John Ruskin, John D. Rosenberg (1964). “The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings”, p.229, University of Virginia Press

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[For men] to feel their souls withering within them, unthanked, to find their whole being sunk into an unrecognized abyss, to be counted off into a heap of mechanism numbered with its wheels, and weighed with its hammer strokes - this, nature bade not, - this, God blesses not, - this, humanity for no long time is able to endure.

John Ruskin

Men, Long, Political

John Ruskin (2012). “Selections From the Works of John Ruskin”, p.215, tredition

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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.

John Ruskin

People, Missing, Melody

John Ruskin (1873). “The Ethics of the Dust: Ten Lectures to Little Housewives on the Elements of Crystallisation”, p.70

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Such help as we can give to each other in this world is a debt to each other; and the man who perceives a superiority or a capacity in a subordinate, and neither confesses nor assists it, is not merely the withholder of kindness, but the committer of injury.

John Ruskin

Kindness, Men, Giving

John Ruskin (1872). “The Two Paths: Being Lectures on Art, and Its Application to Decoration and Manufacture, Delivered in 1858-9”, p.149

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To cultivate sympathy you must be among living creatures, and thinking about them; and to cultivate admiration, you must be among beautiful things and looking at them.

John Ruskin

Beautiful, Thinking, Admiration

John Ruskin (1872). “The Two Paths: Being Lectures on Art, and Its Application to Decoration and Manufacture, Delivered in 1858-9”, p.125

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There was always more in the world than men could see, walked they ever so slowly; they will see it no better for going fast. The really precious things are thought and sight, not pace.

John Ruskin

Journey, Men, Sight

John Ruskin (1850). “Modern Painters: pt. 4. Of many things”, p.308

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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.

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Nature is always mysterious and secret in her use of means; and art is always likest her when it is most inexplicable.

John Ruskin

Art, Nature, Mean

John Ruskin (1873). “Pt. 1-2. of general principles and of truth”, p.36

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We may live without her, and worship without her, but we cannot remember without her. How cold is all history, how lifeless all imagery, compared to that which the living nation writes, and the uncorrupted marble bears!

John Ruskin

Writing, History, May

John Ruskin (1849). “The Seven Lamps of Architecture”, p.164

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In all things that live there are certain irregularities, and deficiencies which are not only signs of life, but sources of beauty. No human face is exactly the same in its lines on each side, no leaf perfect in its lobes, no branch in its symmetry.

John Ruskin

Beauty, Perfect, Branches

John Ruskin (1854). “On the nature of Gothic architecture: and herein of the true functions of the workman in art. Being the greater part of the 6th chapter of the 2nd vol. of 'Stones of Venice'. [48 p.].”, p.14

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This is the true nature of home - it is the place of Peace; the shelter, not only from all injury, but from all terror, doubt, and division.

John Ruskin

Peace, Home, Doubt

John Ruskin (2006). “Sesame and Lillies: Three Lectures”, p.116, Cosimo, Inc.

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No day is without its innocent hope.

John Ruskin

Innocent

John Ruskin (2016). “The Crown of Wild Olive”, p.1038, John Ruskin

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We are, after all, only trustees of the wealth we possess. Without the community and its resources... there would be little wealth for anyone.

John Ruskin

Community, Would Be, Charity

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To invent a story, or admirably and thoroughly tell any part of a story, it is necessary to grasp the entire mind of every personage concerned in it, and know precisely how they would be affected by what happens; which to do requires a colossal intellect: but to describe a separate emotion delicately, it is only needed that one should feel it oneself; and thousands of people are capable of feeling this or that noble emotion, for one who is able to enter into all the feelings of someone sitting on the other side of the table.

John Ruskin

People, Feelings, Mind

"Modern Painters". Book by John Ruskin. Volume III, part IV, chapter XVI, 1856.

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When men do not love their hearth, nor reverence their thresholds, it is a sign that they have dishonoured both ... Our God is a house-hold God, as well as a heavenly one; He has an altar in every man's dwelling.

John Ruskin

Home, Men, Dwelling

John Ruskin (1871). “Selections from the Writings of John Ruskin”, p.340

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Born: February 8, 1819
Died: January 20, 1900
Occupation: Art critic
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