John Ruskin Quotes - Page 23

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The more readily we admit the possibility of our own cherished convictions being mixed with error, the more vital and helpful whatever is right in them will become; and no error is so conclusively fatal as the idea that God will not allow us to err, though He has allowed all other men to do so.

John Ruskin

Men, Errors, Ideas

John Ruskin (1873). “The Ethics of the Dust: Ten Lectures to Little Housewives on the Elements of Crystallisation”, p.231

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God intends no man to live in this world without working, but it seems to me no less evident that He intends every man to be happy in his work.

John Ruskin

Happiness, Men, World

John Ruskin (1906). “Pre-Raphaelitism”, p.7, Рипол Классик

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Our duty is to preserve what the past has had to say for itself, and to say for ourselves what shall be true for the future.

John Ruskin

Birthday, Time, Past

John Ruskin (1850). “Modern Painters: pt. 4. Of many things”, p.94

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No picture can be good which deceives by its imitation, for the very reason that nothing can be beautiful which is not true.

John Ruskin

Beautiful, Deceiving, Reason

John Ruskin (1834). “Modern Painters”, p.25

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The common practice of keeping up appearances with society is a mere selfish struggle of the vain with the vain.

John Ruskin

Selfish, Struggle, Vanity

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There was a rocky valley between Buxton and Bakewell?divine as the vale of Tempe; you might have seen the gods there morning and eveningApollo and the sweet Muses of the Light? You enterprised a railroad?you blasted its rocks away? And, now, every fool in Buxton can be at Bakewell in half-an-hour, and every fool in Bakewell at Buxton.

John Ruskin

Sweet, Morning, Light

1886-8 Praeterita, vol.3, pt.4,'Joanna's Cave', note. Ruskin 704

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Work first and then rest. Work first, and then gaze, but do not use golden ploughshares, nor bind ledgers in enamel.

John Ruskin

Use, Golden, Firsts

John Ruskin (1849). “The Seven Lamps of Architecture”, p.109

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To watch the corn grow, and the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over ploughshare or spade; to read, to think, to love, to hope, to pray, — these are the things that make men happy.

John Ruskin

Love, Happiness, Men

"Selections from the Writings of John Ruskin".

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The enormous influence of novelty--the way in which it quickens observations, sharpens sensations, and exalts sentiment--is not half enough taken note of by us, and is to me a very sorrowful matter. And yet, if we try to obtain perpetual change, change itself will become monotonous.

John Ruskin

Taken, Trying, Matter

John Ruskin (1850). “Modern Painters: pt. 4. Of many things”, p.299

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

John Ruskin

Land, Taxation, Literature

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It is not possible to find a landscape, which if painted precisely as it is, will not make an impressive picture. No one knows, till he has tried, what strange beauty and subtle composition is prepared to his hand by Nature.

John Ruskin

Hands, Landscape, Strange

John Ruskin (1885). “Modern Painters: pt. 5. Of mountain beauty”

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Depend upon it, the first universal characteristic of all great art is Tenderness, as the second is Truth. I find this more and more every day: an infinitude of tenderness is the chief gift and inheritance of all the truly great men. It is sure to involve a relative intensity of disdain towards base things, and an appearance of sternness and arrogance in the eyes of all hard, stupid, and vulgar people

John Ruskin

Art, Stupid, Eye

John Ruskin (1872). “The Two Paths: Being Lectures on Art, and Its Application to Decoration and Manufacture, Delivered in 1858-9”, p.38

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Success by the laws of competition signifies a victory over others by obtaining the direction and profits of their work. This is the real source of all great riches.

John Ruskin

Success, Real, Law

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God has lent us the earth for our life; it is a great entail. It belongs as much to those who are to come after us, and whose names are already written in the book of creation, as to us; and we have no right, by anything that we do or neglect, to involve them in unnecessary penalties, or deprive them of benefits which it was in our power to bequeath.

John Ruskin

Book, Names, Benefits

John Ruskin (1907). “The Religion of Ruskin: The Life and Works of John Ruskin; a Biographical and Anthological Study”

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I've seen the Rhine with younger wave, O'er every obstacle to rave. I see the Rhine in his native wild Is still a mighty mountain child.

John Ruskin

Children, Mountain, Obstacles

John Ruskin (1903). “The Works of John Ruskin”

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

John Ruskin

Landscape Painting, Done, Literature

John Ruskin, John D. Rosenberg (1964). “The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings”, p.149, University of Virginia Press

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We must note carefully what distinction there is between a healthy and a diseased love of change; for as it was in healthy love of change that the Gothic architecture rose, it was partly in consequence of diseased love of change that it was destroyed.

John Ruskin

Rose, Healthy, Gothic

John Ruskin (1854). “On the Nature of Gothic Architecture: And Herein of the True Functions of the Workman in Art ...”, p.16

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You were made for enjoyment, and the world was filled with things which you will enjoy, unless you are too proud to be pleased with them, or too grasping to care for what you can not turn to other account than mere delight.

John Ruskin

Fun, World, Care

John Ruskin (1858). “The Stones of Venice”, p.44

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God alone can finish.

John Ruskin

John Ruskin (1871). “Selections from the Writings of John Ruskin”, p.245

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And besides; the problem of land, at its worst, is a bye one; distribute the earth as you will, the principal question remains inexorable, Who is to dig it? Which of us, in brief word, is to do the hard and dirty work for the rest, and for what pay?

John Ruskin

Dirty, Land, Bye

John Ruskin (1865). “Sesame and Lilies, etc”, p.69

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Modern education has devoted itself to the teaching of impudence, and then we complain that we can no longer control our mobs.

John Ruskin

Teaching, Complaining, Literature

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The last act crowns the play.

John Ruskin

Play, Crowns, Lasts

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No one can become rich by the efforts of only their toil, but only by the discovery of some method of taxing the labor of others.

John Ruskin

Discovery, Effort, Toil

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How false is the conception, how frantic the pursuit, of that treacherous phantom which men call Liberty: most treacherous, indeed, of all phantoms; for the feeblest ray of reason might surely show us, that not only its attainment, but its being, was impossible..... There is no such thing in the universe. There can never be. The stars have it not; the earth has it not; the sea has it not; and we men have the mockery and semblance of it only for our heaviest punishment.

John Ruskin

Stars, Men, Sea

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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An artist should be well read in the best books, and thoroughly high bred, both in heart and bearing. In a word, he should be fit for the best society, and should keef out of it.

John Ruskin

Book, Heart, Artist

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Born: February 8, 1819
Died: January 20, 1900
Occupation: Art critic
Cite this Page: Citation

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