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John Ruskin Quotes

Art critic

John Ruskin was an influential British art critic, writer, and social critic. Known for his profound insights into art, architecture, and social issues, he had a significant impact on the aesthetics and culture of the Victorian era.

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All Men Ifs Art Literature May Humans People Doe Firsts Thinking Architecture Heart World Giving Littles Children Knows Mean Political Done

Famous John Ruskin Quotes

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

Ideas Political Economy Roots Instance Creeds Astrology Witchcraft Alchemy Plausible Political Economy

Book:The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings

Source: The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings

“The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.”

Political Lying Politics Essence Deception Deceiving Self Deception Transcendentalism

Book:The Complete Works of John Ruskin

Source: The Complete Works of John Ruskin

“Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed in our prisons.”

Littles School Political Politics Education Needed Diversity Social Justice Prison Reform Reformation

Author:John Ruskin

“You may either win your peace or buy it: win it, by resistance to evil; buy it, by compromise with evil.”

May Political Evil Politics Winning Peace Resistance Compromise

Book:The Two Paths

Source: The Two Paths

“The first duty of government is to see that people have food, fuel, and clothes. The second, that they have means of moral and intellectual education.”

People Firsts Mean Government Political Politics Education Moral Duty Clothes Intellectual Fuel

Book:Fors Clavigera

Source: Fors Clavigera

“Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts - the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.”

Writing Art Book Political Three Politics Nations Deeds Autobiography Manuscripts Great Nations

Author:John Ruskin

“The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it.”

Political Politics Slavery

Book:The Crown of Wild Olive: Three Lectures on Work, Traffic and War

Source: The Crown of Wild Olive: Three Lectures on Work, Traffic and War

“Whereas it has long been known and declared that the poor have no right to the property of the rich, I wish it also to be known and declared that the rich have no right to the property of the poor.”

Long Political Politics Wish Poor Known Rich Property Gist

Author:John Ruskin

“What do we, as a nation, care about books? How much do you think we spend altogether on our libraries, public or private, as compared with what we spend on our horses?”

Thinking Book Care Political Politics Nations Horse Library Privacy Hairstyles

Book:Sesame and Lilies

Source: Sesame and Lilies

“In health of mind and body, men should see with their own eyes, hear and speak without trumpets, walk on their feet, not on wheels, and work and war with their arms, not with engine-beams, nor rifles warranted to kill twenty men at a shot before you can see them.”

Men Should Mind War Body Eye Political Politics Speak Walks Technology Feet Arms Shots Twenties Wheels Engines Mind And Body Beam Trumpets Rifles

Book:Praeterita

Source: Praeterita

“Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality.”

Life Art Political Politics Industry Art Is Guilt Brutality

Author:John Ruskin

“How false is the conception, how frantic the pursuit, of that treacherous phantom which men call Liberty: most treacherous, indeed, of all phantoms; for the feeblest ray of reason might surely show us, that not only its attainment, but its being, was impossible..... There is no such thing in the universe. There can never be. The stars have it not; the earth has it not; the sea has it not; and we men have the mockery and semblance of it only for our heaviest punishment.”

Source: The stones of Venice (cont'd) Seven lamps of architecture. Lectures on architecture and painting, delivered at Edinburgh in Nov. 1853. An inquiry into some of the conditions at present affecting the study of architecture in our schools

“We have much studied and much perfected, of late, the great civilized invention of the division of labour; only we give it a false name. It is not, truly speaking, the labour that is divided; but the men.”

Men Giving Political Politics Names He Man Late Invention Labour Civilized Division Divided

Book:The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings

Source: The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings

“... no human actions ever were intended by the Maker of men to be guided by balances of expediency, but by balances of justice.”

Men Humans Action Political Politics Justice Balance Makers Expediency Human Actions

Book:Unto this Last

Source: Unto this Last

“Production does not consist in things laboriously made, but in things serviceably consumable; and the question for the nation is not how much labour it employs, but how much life it produces.”

Doe Made Political Politics Nations Produce Productions Labour

Book:The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings

Source: The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings