John Ruskin was an English writer and art critic from the Victorian era. He wrote extensively on subjects ranging from geology to art, and was a major influence in the Victorian art world. He was also a social reformer, advocating for better working conditions and education for the working class.
What is the most famous quote by John Ruskin ?
Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.
— John Ruskin
What can you learn from John Ruskin (Life Lessons)
- John Ruskin taught that life is about more than just material possessions, and that it is important to appreciate the beauty of nature and the world around us.
- He also believed that it is important to be generous and kind to others, and that we should strive to be the best versions of ourselves.
- Finally, he reminded us that it is important to take time to appreciate the small moments in life, and to learn from our mistakes.
The most practical John Ruskin quotes that will activate your inner potential
Following is a list of the best John Ruskin quotes, including various John Ruskin inspirational quotes, and other famous sayings by John Ruskin.
When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.
Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.
No individual raindrop ever consider itself responsible for the flood.
Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless;
peacocks and lilies, for instance.
Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
I do not believe that any peacock envies another peacock his tail, because every peacock is persuaded that his own tail is the finest in the world. The consequence of this is that peacocks are peaceable birds.
There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey.
There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
What we think or what we know or what we believe is in the end of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do
Artistic quotes by John Ruskin
The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.
Blue color is everlastingly appointed by the deity to be a source of delight.
Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become.
They are good furniture pictures, unworthy of praise, and undeserving of blame.
Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
There is a working class - strong and happy - among both rich and poor: there is an idle class - weak, wicked, and miserable - among both rich and poor.
When we build, let us think that we build forever.
Let it not be for present delight nor for our use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will look upon with praise and thanksgiving in their hearts.
There is large difference between indolent impatience of labor and intellectual impatience of delay, large difference between leaving things unfinished because we have more to do or because we are satisfied with what we have done.
Quotations by John Ruskin that are socially-aware and critic
In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.
You talk of the scythe of Time, and the tooth of Time: I tell you, Time is scytheless and toothless; it is we who gnaw like the worm - we who smite like the scythe. It is ourselves who abolish - ourselves who consume: we are the mildew, and the flame.
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.
The step between practical and theoretic science, is the step between the miner and the geologist, the apocathecary and the chemist.
Modern travelling is not travelling at all;
it is merely being sent to a place, and very little different from becoming a parcel.
The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world.
.. to see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.
Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.
Conceit may puff a man up, but never prop him up.
There is material enough in a single flower for the ornament of a score of cathedrals.
A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.
The best thing in life aren't things.
There is no solemnity so deep, to a right-thinking creature, as that of dawn.
Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.
When a man is wrapped up in himself he makes a pretty small package.
Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery.
I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility.
Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.
All violent feelings have the same effect. They produce in us a falseness in all our impressions of external things, which I would generally characterize as the pathetic fallacy.
I will not kill or hurt any living creature needlessly, nor destroy any beautiful thing, but will strive to save and comfort all gentle life, and guard and perfect all natural beauty upon the earth.
To be able to ask a question clearly is two-thirds of the way to getting it answered.
We require from buildings two kinds of goodness: first, the doing their practical duty well: then that they be graceful and pleasing in doing it.
The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most.
Summer 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.
You might sooner get lightning out of incense smoke than true action or passion out of your modern English religion.
The actual flower is the plant's highest fulfilment, and are not here exclusively for herbaria, county floras and plant geography: they are here first of all for delight.
The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most.
The true end of education is not only to make the young learned, but to make them love learning; not only to make them industrious, but to make them love industry; not only to make them virtuous, but to make them love virtue; not only to make them just, but to make them hunger and thirst after justice.
To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education.
No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.
The root of almost every schism and heresy from which the Christian Church has suffered, has been because of the effort of men to earn, rather than receive their salvation; and the reason preaching is so commonly ineffective is, that it often calls on people to work for God rather than letting God work through them.
Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.
The first condition of education is being able to put someone to wholesome and meaningful work.
Make yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts. None of us knows what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought-proof against all adversity. Bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure houses of precious and restful thoughts, which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take away from us.