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Quote by John Ruskin

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The Correspondence of John Ruskin and Charles Eliot Norton

The Correspondence of John Ruskin and Charles Eliot Norton is a comprehensive compilation of letters exchanged between John Ruskin and Charles Eliot Norton. Spanning from the 1850s to the early 1900s, these letters offer a unique perspective on the cultural and intellectual climate of their time. The correspondence reveals the depth of their mutual respect and the influence they had on each other's work, as well as their shared interests in art, literature, and social issues. 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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“Imperfection is in some sort essential to all that we know of life. It is the sign of life in a mortal body, that is to say, of a state of progress and change. Nothing that lives is, or can be rigidly perfect; part of it is decaying, part nascent.”

“To cultivate sympathy you must be among living creatures, and thinking about them; and to cultivate admiration, you must be among beautiful things and looking at them.”

“We must note carefully what distinction there is between a healthy and a diseased love of change; for as it was in healthy love of change that the Gothic architecture rose, it was partly in consequence of diseased love of change that it was destroyed.”

“I would have, then, our ordinary dwelling-houses built to last, and built to be lovely; as rich and full of pleasantness as may be within and without: . . . with such differences as might suit and express each man's character and occupation, and partly his history.”

“It is not so much in buying pictures as in being pictures, that you can encourage a noble school. The best patronage of art is not that which seeks for the pleasures of sentiment in a vague ideality, nor for beauty of form in a marble image, but that which educates your children into living heroes, and binds down the flights and the fondnesses of the heart into practical duty and faithful devotion.”

“Remember always, in painting as in eloquence, the greater your strength, the quieter will be your manner, and the fewer your words; and in painting, as in all the arts and acts of life the secret of high success will be found, not in a fretful and various excellence, but in a quiet singleness of justly chosen aim.”