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John Ruskin

John Ruskin Quotes

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Famous John Ruskin Quotes

“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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“Such help as we can give to each other in this world is a debt to each other; and the man who perceives a superiority or a capacity in a subordinate, and neither confesses nor assists it, is not merely the withholder of kindness, but the committer of injury.”

MenWorldGivingHelpingKindnessThis WorldHe ManCapacityDebtPerceiveInjurySuperioritySubordinates
Book:The Two Paths: Being Lectures on Art, and Its Application to Decoration and Manufacture, Delivered in 1858-9
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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.”

IfsGivingWholeFoundListeningMassSaintHarmPerceiveShoreConfessionSailStrictBentCeremonyCablesSailorDecorationIncenseAbsolution
Book:Selections from the Writings of John Ruskin
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“We are foolish, and without excuse foolish, in speaking of the superiority of one sex to the other, as if they could be compared in similar things! Each has what the other has not; each completes the other; they are in nothing alike and the happiness and perfection of both depend on each asking and receiving from the other what the other only can give.”

IfsGivingSexDependsPerfectionAskingExcuseEqualityFoolishReceivingSuperiority
Book:Sesame and Lilies
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“God is a kind Father. He sets us all in the places where he wishes us to be employed. He chooses work for every creature which will be delightful to them if they do it simply and humbly. He gives us always strength enough and sense enough for what he wants us to do.”

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Book:The Ethics of the Dust: Ten Lectures to Little Housewives on the Elements of Crystallisation
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“He who has once stood beside the grave, to look back upon the companionship which has been forever closed, feeling how impotent there are the wild love, or the keen sorrow, to give one instant's pleasure to the pulseless heart, or atone in the lowest measure to the departed spirit for the hour of unkindness, will scarcely for the future incur that debt to the heart which can only be discharged to the dust.”

GivingLooksHeartHas BeensFeelingsSpiritHoursPleasureForeverSorrowDebtGravesDustInstantCompanionshipLowestDepartedUnkindness
Book:Modern Painters
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“It is eminently a weariable faculty, eminently delicate, and incapable of bearing fatigue; so that if we give it too many objects at a time to employ itself upon, or very grand ones for a long time together, it fails under the effort, becomes jaded, exactly as the limbs do by bodily fatigue, and incapable of answering any farther appeal till it has had rest.”

IfsGivingLongTogetherTimeEffortFailingObjectsFailureLong TimeAppealsFacultyDelicateIncapableLimbsFatigueJadedTime Together
Book:Modern Painters: pt. 4. Of many things
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“Modern science gives lectures on botany, to show there is no such thing as a flower; on humanity, to show there is no such thing as a man; and on theology, to show there is no such thing as a God. No such thing as a man, but only a mechanism, No such thing as a God, but only a series of forces.”

MenGivingShowsHumanityForceModernFlowerSeriesTheologyMechanismScience And ReligionLecturesModern ScienceBotany
Book:Selections and Essays
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