John Ruskin Quotes - Page 18

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In the range of inorganic nature. I doubt if any object can be found more perfectly beautiful than a fresh, deep snowdrift, seen under warm light.

John Ruskin

Beautiful, Nature, Light

John Ruskin (1871). “Selections from the Writings of John Ruskin”, p.91

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All real and wholesome enjoyments possible to people have been just as possible to them since first they were made of the earth as they are now; and they are possible to them chiefly in peace. To watch the corn grow, and the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over plowshare or spade; to read, to think, to love, to hope: these are the things that make people happy.

John Ruskin

Happiness, Real, Thinking

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Candlesticks and incense not being portable into the maintop, the sailor perceives these decorations to be, on the whole, inessential to a maintop mass. Sails must be set and cables bent, be it never so strict a saint's day; and it is found that no harm comes of it. Absolution on a lee-shore must be had of the breakers, it appears, if at all; and they give plenary and brief without listening to confession.

John Ruskin

Giving, Listening, Saint

John Ruskin (1871). “Selections from the Writings of John Ruskin”, p.129

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I used to lie down on the grass and draw the blades as they grew - until every square foot of meadow, or mossy bank, became a possession to me.

John Ruskin

Lying, Squares, Feet

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[For men] to feel their souls withering within them, unthanked, to find their whole being sunk into an unrecognized abyss, to be counted off into a heap of mechanism numbered with its wheels, and weighed with its hammer strokes - this, nature bade not, - this, God blesses not, - this, humanity for no long time is able to endure.

John Ruskin

Men, Long, Political

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

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As in the instances of alchemy, astrology, witchcraft, and other such popular creeds, political economy, has a plausible idea at the root of it.

John Ruskin

Ideas, Roots, Astrology

John Ruskin, John D. Rosenberg (1964). “The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings”, p.229, University of Virginia Press

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There is no music in a “rest” that I know of, but there's the making of music in it. And people are always missing that part of the life melody.

John Ruskin

People, Missing, Melody

John Ruskin (1873). “The Ethics of the Dust: Ten Lectures to Little Housewives on the Elements of Crystallisation”, p.70

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To cultivate sympathy you must be among living creatures, and thinking about them; and to cultivate admiration, you must be among beautiful things and looking at them.

John Ruskin

Beautiful, Thinking, Admiration

John Ruskin (1872). “The Two Paths: Being Lectures on Art, and Its Application to Decoration and Manufacture, Delivered in 1858-9”, p.125

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There was always more in the world than men could see, walked they ever so slowly; they will see it no better for going fast. The really precious things are thought and sight, not pace.

John Ruskin

Journey, Men, Sight

John Ruskin (1850). “Modern Painters: pt. 4. Of many things”, p.308

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Nature is always mysterious and secret in her use of means; and art is always likest her when it is most inexplicable.

John Ruskin

Art, Nature, Mean

John Ruskin (1873). “Pt. 1-2. of general principles and of truth”, p.36

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I believe that there is no test of greatness in periods, nations or men more sure than the development, among them or in them, of a noble grotesque, and no test of comparative smallness or limitation, of one kind or another, more sure than the absence of grotesque invention, or incapability of understanding it.

John Ruskin

Believe, Greatness, Men

John Ruskin (2013). “The Stones of Venice -: The Fall”, p.158, Cosimo, Inc.

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We may live without her, and worship without her, but we cannot remember without her. How cold is all history, how lifeless all imagery, compared to that which the living nation writes, and the uncorrupted marble bears!

John Ruskin

Writing, History, May

John Ruskin (1849). “The Seven Lamps of Architecture”, p.164

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No day is without its innocent hope.

John Ruskin

Innocent

John Ruskin (2016). “The Crown of Wild Olive”, p.1038, John Ruskin

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The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions.

John Ruskin

Science, Facts, Appearance

Stones of Venice Vol. III, Ch. II

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So long as we see the stones and joints, and are not deceived as to the points of support in any piece of architecture, we may rather praise than regret the dexterous artifices which compel us to feel as if there were fibre in its shafts and life in its branches.

John Ruskin

Regret, Long, Support

John Ruskin (1849). “The Seven Lamps of Architecture”, p.34

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We are, after all, only trustees of the wealth we possess. Without the community and its resources... there would be little wealth for anyone.

John Ruskin

Community, Would Be, Charity

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To invent a story, or admirably and thoroughly tell any part of a story, it is necessary to grasp the entire mind of every personage concerned in it, and know precisely how they would be affected by what happens; which to do requires a colossal intellect: but to describe a separate emotion delicately, it is only needed that one should feel it oneself; and thousands of people are capable of feeling this or that noble emotion, for one who is able to enter into all the feelings of someone sitting on the other side of the table.

John Ruskin

People, Feelings, Mind

"Modern Painters". Book by John Ruskin. Volume III, part IV, chapter XVI, 1856.

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When men do not love their hearth, nor reverence their thresholds, it is a sign that they have dishonoured both ... Our God is a house-hold God, as well as a heavenly one; He has an altar in every man's dwelling.

John Ruskin

Home, Men, Dwelling

John Ruskin (1871). “Selections from the Writings of John Ruskin”, p.340

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The greatest glory of a building is not in its stones, nor in its gold. Its glory is in its Age, and in that deep sense of voicefulness, of stern watching, of mysterious sympathy... which we feel in walls that have long been washed by the passing waves of humanity.

John Ruskin

Wall, Long, Humanity

John Ruskin (1849). “The Seven Lamps of Architecture”, p.172

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The step between practical and theoretic science, is the step between the miner and the geologist, the apocathecary and the chemist.

John Ruskin

Steps, Chemist, Practicals

John Ruskin (1873). “Pt. 3, sections 1-2 of the imaginative and theoretic faculties”, p.8

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No divine terror will ever be found in the work of the man who wastes a colossal strength in elaborating toys; for the first lesson that terror is sent to teach us is, the value of the human soul, and the shortness of mortal time.

John Ruskin

Men, Soul, Lessons

John Ruskin (1853). “The Stones of Venice: The fall”, p.144

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I would have, then, our ordinary dwelling-houses built to last, and built to be lovely; as rich and full of pleasantness as may be within and without: . . . with such differences as might suit and express each man's character and occupation, and partly his history.

John Ruskin

Character, Men, Differences

John Ruskin, Louisa Caroline Tuthill (1860). “The True and the Beautiful in Nature, Art, Morals and Religion: Selected from the Works of John Ruskin...”, p.142

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Men are more evanescent than pictures, yet one sorrows for lost friends, and pictures are my friends. I have none others. I am never long enough with men to attach myself to them; and whatever feelings of attachment I have are to material things.

John Ruskin

Friendship, Men, Long

John Ruskin (1904). “The works of John Ruskin”

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Labour without joy is base. Labour without sorrow is base. Sorrow without labour is base. Joy without labour is base.

John Ruskin

Joy, Sorrow, Labour

'Time and Tide' (1867) letter 5

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In mortals there is a care for trifles which proceeds from love and conscience, and is most holy; and a care for trifles which comes of idleness and frivolity, and is most base. And so, also, there is a gravity proceeding from thought, which is most noble; and a gravity proceeding from dulness and mere incapability of enjoyment, which is most base.

John Ruskin

Care, Noble, Holy

John Ruskin (1867). “Precious Thoughts: Moral and Religious. Gathered from the Works of John Ruskin, A. M.”, p.302

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Born: February 8, 1819
Died: January 20, 1900
Occupation: Art critic
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