John Ruskin Quotes

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.

~ John Ruskin

The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most.

~ John Ruskin

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

~ John Ruskin

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

~ John Ruskin

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.

~ John Ruskin

The sky is the part of creation in which nature has done for the sake of pleasing man.

~ John Ruskin

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

~ John Ruskin

Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.

~ John Ruskin

Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.

~ John Ruskin

The strength and power of a country depends absolutely on the quantity of good men and women in it.

~ John Ruskin

No lying knight or lying priest ever prospered in any age, but especially not in the dark ones. Men prospered then only in following an openly declared purpose, and preaching candidly beloved and trusted creeds.

~ John Ruskin

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.

~ John Ruskin

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

~ John Ruskin

It is impossible, as impossible as to raise the dead, to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture. That which I have insisted upon as the life of the whole, that spirit which is given only by the hand and eye of the workman, can never be recalled.

~ John Ruskin

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.

~ John Ruskin

It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.

~ John Ruskin

No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.

~ John Ruskin

You might sooner get lightning out of incense smoke than true action or passion out of your modern English religion.

~ John Ruskin

To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.

~ John Ruskin

There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

~ John Ruskin

Skill is the unified force of experience, intellect and passion in their operation.

~ John Ruskin

Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth.

~ John Ruskin

A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.

~ John Ruskin

I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility.

~ John Ruskin

The first test of a truly great man is his humility. By humility I don't mean doubt of his powers or hesitation in speaking his opinion, but merely an understanding of the relationship of what he can say and what he can do.

~ John Ruskin

Beauty deprived of its proper foils and adjuncts ceases to be enjoyed as beauty, just as light deprived of all shadows ceases to be enjoyed as light.

~ John Ruskin

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

~ John Ruskin

The first condition of education is being able to put someone to wholesome and meaningful work.

~ John Ruskin

Modern education has devoted itself to the teaching of impudence, and then we complain that we can no longer control our mobs.

~ John Ruskin

Education is the leading of human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them.

~ 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

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world... to see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.

~ John Ruskin

He that would be angry and sin not, must not be angry with anything but sin.

~ John Ruskin