Quotes by John Ruskin

It is not how much one makes
but to what purpose one spends.
~John Ruskin~

The question is not what
man can scorn, or disparage,
or find fault with, but what he
can love, and value, and appreciate.
~John Ruskin~

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

When we build, let us
think that we build forever.
~John Ruskin~

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing,
wind braces up, snow is exhilarating;
there is no such thing as bad weather,
only different kinds of good weather.
~John Ruskin~

Quality is never an accident;
it is always the result
of an intelligent effort.
~John Ruskin~

You may either win your peace or
buy it: win it, by resistance to evil;
buy it, by compromise with evil.
~John Ruskin~

The best things in life aren't things.
~John Ruskin~

Mountains are the beginning
and the end of all natural scenery.
~John Ruskin~

Being thus prepared for us in all ways,
and made beautiful, and good for
food, and for building, and for
instruments of our hands, this race of
plants, deserving boundless affection and
admiration from us, becomes, in
proportion to their obtaining it, a nearly
perfect test of our being in right temper
of mind and way of life; so that no one
can be far wrong in either who loves
trees enough, and everyone is assuredly
wrong in both who does not love them,
if his life has brought them in his way.
~John Ruskin~

There is no wealth but life.
~John Ruskin~

Government and cooperation are
in all things the laws of life; anarchy
and competition the laws of death.
~John Ruskin~

I believe that the first test of
a truly great man is his humility.
Really great men have a curious feeling
that the greatness is not in them but
through them. And they see something
divine in every other man and are
endlessly, incredibly merciful.
~John Ruskin~

There are many religions,
but there is only one morality.
~John Ruskin~

No one can ask honestly or
hopefully to be delivered from
temptation unless he has himself
honestly and firmly determined to
do the best he can to keep out of it.
~John Ruskin~

Though you may have known clever
men who were indolent, you never knew
a great man who was so; and when I hear
a young man spoken of as giving promise
of great genius, the first question
I ask about him always is, Does he work?
~John Ruskin~

You will find it less easy to uproot faults
than to choke them by gaining virtues.
Do not think of your faults, still less of
other's faults. In every person who comes
near you look for what is good and
strong; honor that; try to imitate it,
and your faults will drop off like
dead leaves when their time comes.
~John Ruskin~

When love and skill work
together, expect a masterpiece.
~John Ruskin~

Be sure that you go to
the author to get at his
meaning, not to find yours.
~John Ruskin~

The greatest thing a human soul ever
does in this world is to see something,
and tell what it saw in a plain way.
Hundreds of people can talk for one
who can think, but thousands can think
for one who can see. To see clearly is
poetry, prophecy, and religion — all in one.
~John Ruskin~

However good you may be you have
faults; however dull you may be
you can find out what some of
them are, and however slight they may
be you had better make some — not too
painful, but patient efforts to get rid of them.
~John Ruskin~

Fine art is that in which
the hand, the head, and the
heart of man go together.
~John Ruskin~

Your honesty is not to be based either
on religion or policy. Both your religion
and policy must be based on it.
Your honesty must be based, as the
sun is, in vacant heaven; poised,
as the lights in the firmament, which
have rule over the day and over the night.
~John Ruskin~

Every increased possession
loads us with a new weariness.
~John Ruskin~

No human being, however great,
or powerful, was ever so free as a fish.
~John Ruskin~

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.
~John Ruskin~

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

All books are divisible into
two classes: the books of the hour,
and the books of all time.
~John Ruskin~

To know anything well involves
a profound sensation of ignorance.
~John Ruskin~

The entire object of true education is
to make people not merely do the
right things, but enjoy the right things
— not merely industrious, but to love
industry — not merely learned, but to
love knowledge — not merely pure, but
to love purity — not merely just,
but to hunger and thirst after justice.
~John Ruskin~

The essence of lying is
in deception, not in words.
~John Ruskin~

Cheerfulness is as natural to the
heart of a man in strong health as
color to his cheek; and wherever
there is habitual gloom there must
be either bad air, unwholesome food,
improperly severe labor, or erring habits of life.
~John Ruskin~

Dream lofty dreams, and as
you dream, so shall you become.
Your vision is the promise of
what you shall at last unveil.
~John Ruskin~

All things are literally better, lovelier,
and more beloved for the imperfections
which have been divinely appointed,
that the law of human life may be Effort,
and the law of human judgment, Mercy.
~John Ruskin~

Not only is there but one way of
doing things rightly, but there is only
one way of seeing them, and
that is, seeing the whole of them.
~John Ruskin~

There is no law of history any
more than of a kaleidoscope.
~John Ruskin~

Remember that the most beautiful
things in the world are the most useless;
peacocks and lilies, for instance.
~John Ruskin~

Give a little love to a child,
and you get a great deal back.
~John Ruskin~

To make your children capable of
honesty is the beginning of education.
~John Ruskin~

To be able to ask a question
clearly is two-thirds of the
way to getting it answered.
~John Ruskin~

Every great man is always being helped
by everybody, for his gift is to get
good out of all things and all persons.
~John Ruskin~

 

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