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Quote by John Ruskin

“Absolute and entire ugliness is rare.”

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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

“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.”

Ifs Way Giving Doe Enough Moments Helping Might Form Fall Girl Grows Growth Sun Air Flower Fairs Dust Decay Hammers Fetters Narcissus

Book:Essays and Letters Selected from the Writings of John Ruskin

Source: Essays and Letters Selected from the Writings of John Ruskin

“Painting with all its technicalities, difficulties, and peculiar ends, is nothing but a noble and expressive language, invaluable as the vehicle of thought, but by itself nothing.”

Ends Language Painting Difficulty Noble Peculiar Vehicle Expressive Invaluable Technicalities

Book:The True and the Beautiful in Nature, Art, Morals, and Religion, Selected from the Works of John Ruskin

Source: The True and the Beautiful in Nature, Art, Morals, and Religion, Selected from the Works of John Ruskin

“If it is the love of that which your work represents--if, being a landscape painter, it is love of hills and trees that moves you--if, being a figure painter, it is love of human beauty, and human soul that moves you--if, being a flower or animal painter, it is love, and wonder, and delight in petal and in limb that move you, then the Spirit is upon you, and the earth is yours, and the fullness thereof.”

Ifs Humans Soul Earth Moving Spirit Animal Wonder Tree Figures Painting Flower Delight Painter Hills Landscape Limbs Fullness Human Soul Petals Figure Painting

Book:Works

Source: Works

“Sculpture is not the mere cutting of the form of anything in stone; it is the cutting of the effect of it. Very often the true form, in the marble, would not be in the least like itself.”

Form Cutting Effects Stones Mere Sculpture Marble

Book:The seven lamps of architecture

Source: The seven lamps of architecture

“The sculptor does not work for the anatomist, but for the common observer of life and nature.”

Doe Common Sculpture Observers Sculptors

Book:Modern Painters

Source: Modern Painters

“The sculptor must paint with his chisel; half his touches are not to realize, but to put power into, the form. They are touches of light and shadow, and raise a ridge, or sink a hollow, not to represent an actual ridge or hollow, but to get a line of light, or a spot of darkness.”

Light Form Realizing Lines Half Darkness Shadow Raises Paint Spots Sculpture Hollow Sculptors Ridges Light And Shadow Chisels

Book:The seven lamps of architecture

Source: The seven lamps of architecture

“Temperance, in the nobler sense, does not mean a subdued and imperfect energy; it does not mean a stopping short in any good thing, as in love and in faith; but it means the power which governs the most intense energy, and prevents its acting in way but as it ought.”

Way Mean Doe Energy Acting Ought Good Things Intense Imperfect Stopping Temperance

Book:The Stones of Venice...

Source: The Stones of Venice...

“Whether we force the man's property from him by pinching his stomach, or pinching his fingers, makes some difference anatomically; morally, none whatsoever.”

Men Force Differences Property Fingers Stomach Theft Pinching

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

Source: The Two Paths: Being Lectures on Art, and Its Application to Decoration and Manufacture, Delivered in 1858-9

Quote by John Ruskin

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