John Ruskin Quotes - Page 20

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True taste is forever growing, learning, reading, worshipping, laying its hand upon its mouth because it is astonished, casting its shoes from off its feet because it finds all ground holy.

John Ruskin

Reading, Feet, Hands

John Ruskin (1849). “Of ideas of beauty”, p.25

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In mortals there is a care for trifles which proceeds from love and conscience, and is most holy; and a care for trifles which comes of idleness and frivolity, and is most base. And so, also, there is a gravity proceeding from thought, which is most noble; and a gravity proceeding from dulness and mere incapability of enjoyment, which is most base.

John Ruskin

Care, Noble, Holy

John Ruskin (1867). “Precious Thoughts: Moral and Religious. Gathered from the Works of John Ruskin, A. M.”, p.302

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But whether thus submissively or not, at least be sure that you go to the author to get at his meaning, not to find yours.

John Ruskin

Sesame and Lilies "Of Kings' Treasuries" (1865)

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God shows us in Himself, strange as it may seem, not only authoritative perfection, but even the perfection of obedience--an obedience to His own laws; and in the cumbrous movement of those unwieldiest of his creatures we are reminded, even in His divine essence, of that attribute of uprightness in the human creature "that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not.

John Ruskin

God, Hurt, Law

John Ruskin (1849). “The Seven Lamps of Architecture”, p.37

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We shall be remembered in history as the most cruel, and therefore the most unwise, generation of men that ever yet troubled the earth: the most cruel in proportion to their sensibility, the most unwise in proportion to their science. No people, understanding pain, ever inflicted so much: no people, understanding facts, ever acted on them so little.

John Ruskin

Pain, Men, People

John Ruskin (1873). “The Eagle's Nest: Ten Lectures on the Relation of Natural Science to Art, Given Before the University of Oxford in Lent Term, 1872”, p.34

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

John Ruskin

Taste, Ethics, Morality

The Crown of Wild Olive Lecture 2 (1866)

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The finer the nature, the more flaws it will show through the clearness of it; and it is a law of this universe that the best things shall be seldomest seen in their best form.

John Ruskin

Law, Form, Shows

John Ruskin (1854). “On the Nature of Gothic Architecture: And Herein of the True Functions of the Workman in Art ...”, p.7

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Cookery means…English thoroughness, French art, and Arabian hospitality; it means the knowledge of all fruits and herbs and balms and spices; it means carefulness, inventiveness, and watchfulness.

John Ruskin

Art, Food, Mean

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God never imposes a duty without giving time to do it.

John Ruskin

Giving, Duty, Giving Time

John Ruskin (2015). “Lectures on Architecture and Painting”, p.66, John Ruskin

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Labor rids us of three great evils; tediousness, vice, and poverty.

John Ruskin

Work, Evil, Labor Day

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Science has to do with facts, art with phenomena. To science, phenomena are of use only as they lead to facts; and to art, facts are of use only as they lead to phenomena.

John Ruskin

Art, Science, Use

John Ruskin (1897*). “Stones of Venice”

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Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become.

John Ruskin

Positive, Dream, Inspiration

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Curran's speech at The Chancellor's Dinner, Mansion House, www.city.ac.uk. April 23, 2014.

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The truths of nature are one eternal change, one infinite variety. There is no bush on the face of the globe exactly like another bush; there are no two trees in the forest whose boughs bend into the same network, nor two leaves on the same tree which could not be told one from the other, nor two waves in the sea exactly alike.

John Ruskin

Nature, Sea, Two

John Ruskin (1848). “Modern Painters”, p.55

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The wisest men are wise to the full in death.

John Ruskin

Wise, Men, Wisest Man

John Ruskin, John Atkinson Hobson (1899*). “John Ruskin's works”

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Civilization is the making of civil persons.

John Ruskin

Civilization, Literature, Persons

John Ruskin (1867). “Time and Tide, by Weare and Tyne. Twenty-five letters to a working man of Sunderland on the laws of work”, p.197

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High art consists neither in altering, nor in improving nature; but in seeking throughout nature for 'whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are pure;' in loving these, in displaying to the utmost of the painter's power such loveliness as is in them, and directing the thoughts of others to them by winning art, or gentle emphasis.

John Ruskin

Art, Winning, Lovely

John Ruskin (1859). “Modern Painters: (pt.4) Modern painters of many things”, p.35

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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

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What do you suppose makes all men look back to the time of childhood with so much regret (if their childhood has been, in any moderate degree, healthy or peaceful)? That rich charm, which the least possession had for us, was in consequence of the poorness of our treasures.

John Ruskin

Regret, Men, Childhood

John Ruskin “Two paths. Lectures on art, delivered before the University of Oxford in Hilary Term, 1870. Aratra Pentelici. Time and tide. Pre-Raphaelitism. The eagle's nest. King of the Golden River. The relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret”

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Whether we force the man's property from him by pinching his stomach, or pinching his fingers, makes some difference anatomically; morally, none whatsoever.

John Ruskin

Men, Differences, Pinching

John Ruskin (1872). “The Two Paths: Being Lectures on Art, and Its Application to Decoration and Manufacture, Delivered in 1858-9”, p.186

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Ignorance, which is contented and clumsy, will produce what is imperfect, but not offensive. But ignorance dis contented and dexterous, learning what it cannot understand, and imitating what it cannot enjoy, produces the most loathsome forms of manufacture that can disgrace or mislead humanity.

John Ruskin

Ignorance, Humanity, Imperfect

John Ruskin (1873). “The Eagle's Nest: Ten Lectures on the Relation of Natural Science to Art, Given Before the University of Oxford in Lent Term, 1872”, p.80

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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.

John Ruskin

Race, Forever, Peculiar

John Ruskin (1848). “Modern Painters”, p.79

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Modern science gives lectures on botany, to show there is no such thing as a flower; on humanity, to show there is no such thing as a man; and on theology, to show there is no such thing as a God. No such thing as a man, but only a mechanism, No such thing as a God, but only a series of forces.

John Ruskin

Flower, Men, Giving

John Ruskin (1918). “Selections and Essays”, Scholarly Press

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It does not matter what the whip is; it is none the less a whip, because you have cut thongs for it out of your own souls.

John Ruskin

Cutting, Soul, Doe

John Ruskin (1866). “The Crown of Wild Olive: Three Lectures on Work, Traffic, and War”, p.194

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There is no climate, no place, and scarcely an hour, in which nature does not exhibit color which no mortal effort can imitate or approach. For all our artificial pigments are, even when seen under the same circumstances, dead and lightless beside her living color; nature exhibits her hues under an intensity of sunlight which trebles their brilliancy.

John Ruskin

Nature, Color, Effort

John Ruskin (1848). “Modern Painters ...: pt. 1-2. Of general principles, and Of truth. 5th ed”, p.154

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Wise laws and just restraints are to a noble nation not chains, but chains of mail, -- strength and defense, though something of an incumbrance.

John Ruskin

Wise, Law, Liberty

John Ruskin (1900). “Complete Works”

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