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John Ruskin Quotes - Page 25

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He who has once stood beside the grave, to look back upon the companionship which has been forever closed, feeling how impotent there are the wild love, or the keen sorrow, to give one instant's pleasure to the

He who has once stood beside the grave, to look back upon the companionship which has been forever closed, feeling how impotent there are the wild love, or the keen sorrow, to give one instant's pleasure to the pulseless heart, or atone in the lowest measure to the departed spirit for the hour of unkindness, will scarcely for the future incur that debt to the heart which can only be discharged to the dust.

John Ruskin
Heart, Dust, Giving
John Ruskin (1848). “Modern Painters”, p.6

Absolute ugliness is admitted as rarely as perfect beauty; but degrees of it more or less distinct are associated with whatever has the nature of death and sin, just as beauty is associated with what has the nature of virtue and of life.

John Ruskin
Perfect, Degrees, Sin
John Ruskin (1871). “Selections from the Writings of John Ruskin”, p.421

That admiration of the 'neat but not gaudy,' which is commonly reported to have influenced the devil when he painted his tail pea green.

John Ruskin
Devil, Tails, Green
John Ruskin (2010). “The Poetry of Architecture - Cottage, Villa, Etc - To Which Is Added Suggestions on Works of Art”, p.161, Orchard Press

You cannot have good architecture merely by asking people's advice on occasion. All good architecture is the expression of national life and character; and it is produced by a prevalent and eager national taste, or desire for beauty.

John Ruskin
Character, Expression, People
John Ruskin, John D. Rosenberg (1964). “The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings”, p.274, University of Virginia Press

The greatest efforts of the race have always been traceable to the love of praise, as the greatest catastrophes to the love of pleasure.

John Ruskin
Race, Effort, Praise
John Ruskin (2008). “The Lamp of Memory”, p.43, Penguin UK

If we pretend to have reached either perfection or satisfaction, we have degraded ourselves and our work. God's work only may express that, but ours may never have that sentence written upon it, Behold it was very good.

John Ruskin
Perfection, May, Satisfaction
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.19

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