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Quote by John Ruskin

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The fall

A narrative that delves into the complexities of personal and societal decline, examining the journey from stability to chaos and the search for redemption. more

Author

John Ruskin
John Ruskin

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. more

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“A gentleman's first characteristic is that fineness of structure in the body which renders it capable of the most delicate sensation; and of structure in the mind which renders it capable of the most delicate sympathies; one may say simply "fineness of nature.”

MindFirstsMayBodyCapableStructureGentlemanCharacteristicsSensationsDelicate
Book:pt. VI: Of leaf beauty. pt. VII: Of cloud beauty. pts. VIII-IX: Of ideas of relation
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“I believe that there is no test of greatness in periods, nations or men more sure than the development, among them or in them, of a noble grotesque, and no test of comparative smallness or limitation, of one kind or another, more sure than the absence of grotesque invention, or incapability of understanding it.”

MenBelieveKindI BelieveNationsUnderstandingGreatnessDevelopmentPeriodsTestsNobleAbsenceInventionLimitationGrotesqueSmallnessIncapability
Book:The Stones of Venice -: The Fall
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“Wherever the human mind is healthy and vigorous in all its proportions, great in imagination and emotion no less than in intellect, and not overborne by an undue or hardened pre-eminence of the mere reasoning faculties, there the grotesque will exist in full energy.”

MindHumansEnergyImaginationEmotionHealthyMereIntellectReasoningProportionFacultyHuman MindVigorousGrotesqueHardenedEminence
Book:The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings
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“The fact of our deriving constant pleasure from whatever is a type or semblance of divine attributes, and from nothing but that which is so, is the most glorious of all that can be demonstrated of human nature; it not only sets a great gulf of specific separation between us and the lower animals, but it seems a promise of a communion ultimately deep, close, and conscious, with the Being whose darkened manifestations we here feebly and unthinkingly delight in.”

HumansFactsSeemsPleasureAnimalHuman NatureDivineTypePromiseConsciousConstantDelightSeparationManifestationGloriousAttributesCommunionSemblance
Book:Modern Painters: (pt.3) Of ideas of beauty
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“It is, indeed, right that we should look for, and hasten, so far as in us lies, the coming of the day of God; but not that we should check any human effort by anticipations of its approach. We shall hasten it best by endeavoring to work out the tasks that are appointed for us here; and, therefore, reasoning as if the world were to continue under its existing dispensation, and the powers which have just been granted to us were to be continued through myriads of future ages.”

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Book:The Stones of Venice
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“The enormous influence of novelty--the way in which it quickens observations, sharpens sensations, and exalts sentiment--is not half enough taken note of by us, and is to me a very sorrowful matter. And yet, if we try to obtain perpetual change, change itself will become monotonous.”

IfsWayTryingMatterEnoughHalfTakenInfluenceNotesEnormousObservationSensationsSentimentsPerpetualNoveltyMonotonousSorrowful
Book:Modern Painters: pt. 4. Of many things
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