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John Ruskin

John Ruskin Quotes

Art critic

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Famous John Ruskin Quotes

“There is no wealth but life. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest numbers of noble and happy human beings; that man is richest, who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful influence, both personal, and by means of his possessions, over the lives of others.”

MenHumansMeanCountryJoyWealthHuman BeingsNumbersInfluenceFunctionIncludingPossessionNobleHelpfulAdmirationPower Of LoveLives Of Others
Book:Unto this Last
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“Wherever men are noble, they love bright colour; and wherever they can live healthily, bright colour is given them—in sky, sea, flowers, and living creatures.”

MenGivenSeaSkyFlowerCreaturesNobleColourLiving Creatures
Book:Proserpina: Studies of Wayside Flowers, While the Air was Yet Pure Among the Alps, and in the Scotland and England which My Father Knew
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“Depend upon it, the first universal characteristic of all great art is Tenderness, as the second is Truth. I find this more and more every day: an infinitude of tenderness is the chief gift and inheritance of all the truly great men. It is sure to involve a relative intensity of disdain towards base things, and an appearance of sternness and arrogance in the eyes of all hard, stupid, and vulgar people”

PeopleMenFirstsArtHardEyeStupidDependsArt IsUniversalAppearanceChiefsCharacteristicsArroganceGreat MenIntensityRelativeTendernessVulgarGreat ArtInheritanceDisdain
Book:The Two Paths: Being Lectures on Art, and Its Application to Decoration and Manufacture, Delivered in 1858-9
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“If men lived like men indeed, their houses would be temples -- temples which we should hardly dare to injure, and in which it would make us holy to be permitted to live; and there must be a strange dissolution of natural affection, a strange unthankfulness for all that homes have given and parents taught, a strange consciousness that we have been unfaithful to our fathers honor, or that our own lives are not such as would make our dwellings sacred to our children, when each man would fain build to himself, and build for the little revolution of his own life only.”

IfsMenShouldChildrenLittlesHas BeensHomeWould BeFatherHouseGivenParentNaturalConsciousnessTaughtStrangeRevolutionHonorHolyOur ChildrenSacredAffectionDareTemplesRebelliousOur FatherDwellingDissolutionUnfaithful
Book:The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings
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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.”

MenFeelsLongSoulWholeAblePoliticalHumanityLong TimeEndureWheelsBlessMechanismStrokesAbyssHammersGod BlessWithering
Book:Selections From the Works of John Ruskin
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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.”

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Book:Selections and Essays
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