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John Ruskin

John Ruskin Quotes

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Famous John Ruskin Quotes

“In our whole life melody the music is broken off here and there by rests, and we foolishly think we have come to the end of time. God sends a time of forced leisure, a time of sickness and disappointed plans, and makes a sudden pause in the hymns of our lives, and we lament that our voice must be silent and our part missing in the music which ever goes up to the ear of our Creator. Not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the time and not be dismayed at the rests. If we look up, God will beat the time for us.”

IfsThinkingWritingLooksDoeEndsWholeLife IsVoiceChristianityOur LivesPlansMissingDesignBrokenMusic IsBeatsEarsSilentCreatorWhole LifeGods WillLook UpSicknessMelodyDisappointedLeisurePausesEnd TimesHere And ThereHymnsLamentDismayed
Author:John Ruskin
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“You cannot hammer a girl into anything. She grows as a flower does, she will wither without sun; she will decay in her sheath as a narcissus will if you do not give her air enough; she might fall and defile her head in dust if you leave her without help at some moments in her life; but you cannot fetter her; she must take her own fair form and way if she take any.”

IfsWayGivingDoeEnoughMomentsHelpingMightFormFallGirlGrowsGrowthSunAirFlowerFairsDustDecayHammersFettersNarcissus
Book:Essays and Letters Selected from the Writings of John Ruskin
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“Men say their pinnacles point to heaven. Why, so does every tree that buds, and every bird that rises as it sings. Men say their aisles are good for worship. Why, so is every mountain glen and rough sea-shore. But this they have of distinct and indisputable glory,--that their mighty walls were never raised, and never shall be, but by men who love and aid each other in their weakness.”

MenDoeHeavenTreeSeaWallMountainWorshipGloryBirdWeaknessRaisedAidsRoughShoreBudAislePinnacleRough Seas
Book:The Two Paths: Being Lectures on Art, and Its Application to Decoration and Manufacture, Delivered in 1858-9
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“All are to be men of genius in their degree,--rivulets or rivers, it does not matter, so that the souls be clear and pure; not dead walls encompassing dead heaps of things, known and numbered, but running waters in the sweet wilderness of things unnumbered and unknown, conscious only of the living banks, on which they partly refresh and partly reflect the flowers, and so pass on.”

MenDoeSoulMatterRunningWaterKnownClearSweetFlowerWallGeniusPureDegreesConsciousRiversWildernessBe A ManRunning Water
Book:The Stones of Venice...
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“No changing of place at a hundred miles an hour will make us one whit stronger, or happier, or wiser. There was always more in the world than man 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. It does a bullet no good to go fast; and a man, if he be truly a man, no harm to go slow; for his glory is not at all in going, but in being.”

IfsMenWorldDoeHoursGloryHundredSightStrongerHarmMilesPaceWiserBulletsPrecious Things
Author:John Ruskin
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“What does cookery mean? It means the knowledge of Medea and of Circe, and of Calypso, and Sheba. It means knowledge of all herbs, and fruits, and balms and spices... It means the economy of your great-grandmother and the science of modern chemistry, and French art, and Arabian hospitality. It means, in fine, that you are to see imperatively that everyone has something nice to eat.”

MeanDoeArtKnowledgeEconomyNiceModernFoodFineCookingFruitGrandmotherCulinaryChemistryHospitalitySpicesHerbsCookeryArabianGreat GrandmotherCalypsoMedea
Author:John Ruskin
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“Not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the time, and not be discouraged at the rests. If we say sadly to ourselves, "There is no music in a rest," let us not forget " there is the making of music in it." The making of music is often a slow and painful process in this life. How patiently God works to teach us! How long He waits for us to learn the lesson!”

IfsWritingLongDoeLife IsWaitingProcessForgetTeachOur LivesDesignLessonsMusic IsPatiencePainfulThis LifeDiscouraged
Author:John Ruskin
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“Geology does better in reclothing dry bones and revealing lost creations, than in tracing veins of lead and beds of iron; astronomy better in opening to us the houses of heaven than in teaching navigation; surgery better in investigating organiation than in setting limbs; only it is ordained that, for our encouragement, every step we make in science adds something to its practical applicabilities.”

DoeScienceHouseLostHeavenStepsTeachingCreationBedEncouragementAddBonesAstronomyPracticalsSettingOpeningSettingsDryIronSurgeryVeinsLimbsRevealingEvery StepGeologyInvestigatingNavigationTracingDry Bones
Book:The Religion of Ruskin: The Life and Works of John Ruskin; a Biographical and Anthological Study
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“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.”

IfsDoePoliticalFightingPoliticsWinningNationsDifferencesLandKingsArmyProfitWideTreasureGovernorsCaptains
Book:Selections and Essays
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“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.”

IfsWayLifeMindDoeMadeEnoughHandsBeautifulPerfectRaceTreeBuildingTestsInstrumentsPlantPreparedAffectionPreparationProportionAdmirationTemperBoundlessDeservingObtaining
Book:Pt. 6-9 of leaf beauty. of cloud beauty. of ideas of relation
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“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.”

ShouldDoeBeautifulNaturePerfectHighestAppreciationSensesPassagesFinestExhibits
Book:Modern Painters
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“There is no climate, no place, and scarcely an hour, in which nature does not exhibit color which no mortal effort can imitate or approach. For all our artificial pigments are, even when seen under the same circumstances, dead and lightless beside her living color; nature exhibits her hues under an intensity of sunlight which trebles their brilliancy.”

DoeNatureHoursEffortColorCircumstancesApproachClimateMortalsIntensityArtificialSunlightExhibitsHuePigmentLiving Color
Book:Modern Painters ...: pt. 1-2. Of general principles, and Of truth. 5th ed
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