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John Ruskin Quotes - Page 8

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Man's only true happiness is to live in hope of something to be won by him. Reverence something to be worshipped by him, and love something to be cherished by him, forever.

Man's only true happiness is to live in hope of something to be won by him. Reverence something to be worshipped by him, and love something to be cherished by him, forever.

Love, Men, Forever

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

You may chisel a boy into shape, as you would a rock, or hammer him into it, if he be of a better kind, as you would a piece of bronze. But you cannot hammer a girl into anything. She grows as a flower does.

Cute, Girl, Flower

John Ruskin (2006). “Sesame and Lillies: Three Lectures”, p.125, Cosimo, Inc.

No peace was ever won from fate by subterfuge or argument; no peace is ever in store for any of us, but that which we shall win by victory over shame or sin--victory over the sin that oppresses, as well as over that which corrupts.

Peace, Fate, Winning

But I beg you to observe that there is a wide difference between being captains or governors of work, and taking the profits of it. It does not follow, because you are general of an army, that you are to take all the treasure, or land, it wins; (if it fight for treasure or land); neither, because you are king of a nation, that you are to consume all the profits of the nation's work.

Kings, Fighting, Army

John Ruskin (2013). “Selections and Essays”, p.307, Courier Corporation

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

Greatness, Men, Gold

In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it. They must not do too much of it. And they must have a sense of success in it.

Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

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

It is a shallow criticism that would define poetry as confined to literary productions in rhyme and meter rhythm. The written poem is only poetry talking, and the statue, the picture, and the musical composition are poetry acting. Milton and Goethe, at their desks, were not more truly poets than Phidias with his chisel, Raphael at his easel, or deaf Beethoven bending over his piano, inventing and producing strains, which he himself could never hope to hear.

Art, Talking, Piano

The object of true education is to make people not merely do the right things, but enjoy them

People, Enjoy, Objects

John Ruskin, John D. Rosenberg (1964). “The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings”, p.275, University of Virginia Press

You may assuredly find perfect peace, if you are resolved to do that which your Lord has plainly required--and content that He should indeed require no more of you--than to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Him.

Peace, Perfect, Justice

John Ruskin (1905). “The Works of John Ruskin”

There are no such things as Flowers there are only gladdened Leaves.

Flower, Literature

John Ruskin, John D. Rosenberg (1964). “The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings”, p.367, University of Virginia Press

The imagination is never governed, it is always the ruling and divine power.

Inspirational, Power, Imagination

John Ruskin (2013). “The Stones of Venice -: The Fall”, p.152, Cosimo, Inc.

My mother's influence in molding my character was conspicuous. She forced me to learn daily long chapters of the Bible by heart. To that discipline and patient, accurate resolve I owe not only much of my general power of taking pains, but of the best part of my taste for literature.

Mother, Pain, Heart

But if, indeed, there be a nobler life in us than in these strangely moving atoms; if, indeed, there is an eternal difference between the fire which inhabits them, and that which animates us,--it must be shown, by each of us in his appointed place, not merely in the patience, but in the activity of our hope, not merely by our desire, but our labor, for the time when the dust of the generations of men shall be confirmed for foundations of the gates of the city of God.

Moving, Men, Fire

John Ruskin (1873). “The Ethics of the Dust: Ten Lectures to Little Housewives on the Elements of Crystallisation”, p.237

Pleasure comes through toil, and not by self indulgence and indolence. When one gets to love work, his life is a happy one.

Work, Self, Toil

The art of drawing which is of more real importance to the human race than that of writing...should be taught to every child just as writing is.

Art, Children, Real

Give me some mud off a city crossing, some ochre out of a gravel pit and a little whitening and some coal dust and I will paint you a luminous picture if you give me time to gradate my mud and subdue my dust.

Dust, Cities, Giving

John Ruskin (2012). “The Elements of Drawing”, p.149, Courier Corporation

Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts - the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.

Art, Book, Writing

St. Mark's Rest preface (1877)

Color is, in brief terms, the type of love. Hence it is especially connected with the blossoming of the earth; and again, with its fruits; also, with the spring and fall of the leaf, and with the morning and evening of the day, in order to show the waiting of love about the birth and death of man.

Morning, Spring, Fall

John Ruskin (1868). “pt. VI: Of leaf beauty. pt. VII: Of cloud beauty. pts. VIII-IX: Of ideas of relation”, p.338

All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul.

Art, Soul, Literature

John Ruskin (2015). “The Stones of Venice”, p.312, John Ruskin

Superstition, in all times and among all nations, is the fear of a spirit whose passions are those of a man, whose acts are the acts of a man; who is present in some places, not in others; who makes no places holy and not others; who is kind to one person, unkind to another; who is pleased or angry according to the degree of attention you pay him, or praise you refuse to him; who is hostile generally to human pleasure, but may be bribed by sacrifice of a part of that pleasure into permitting the rest. This, whatever form of faith it colors, is the essence of superstition.

Passion, Sacrifice, Men

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

Ship of the line is the most honourable thing that man, as a gregarious animal, has ever produced.

Animal, Men, Lines

John Ruskin (1871). “Selections from the Writings of John Ruskin”, p.380

Greater completion marks the progress of art, absolute completion usually its decline.

Art, Progress, Decline

John Ruskin (1849). “The Seven Lamps of Architecture”, p.120

Though nature is constantly beautiful, she does not exhibit her highest powers of beauty constantly, for then they would satiate us and pall upon our senses. It is necessary to their appreciation that they should be rarely shown. Her finest touches are things which must be watched for; her most perfect passages of beauty are the most evanescent.

Beautiful, Appreciation, Nature

John Ruskin (1873). “Modern Painters”, p.64

You will find that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to help other people, will, in the quickest and delicatest ways, improve yourself.

Knowledge, Helping Others, People

John Ruskin (2015). “Sesame and Lilies”, p.93, John Ruskin

The great cry that rises from our manufacturing cities, louder than their furnace blast, is all in very deed for this, that we manufacture everything there except men; we blanch cotton, and strengthen steel, and refine sugar, and shape pottery; but to brighten, to strengthen, to refine, or to form a single living spirit, never enters into our estimate of advantages.

Men, Cities, Steel

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

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