John Ruskin Quotes
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I am far more provoked at being thought foolish by foolish people, than pleased at being thought sensible by sensible people; and the average proportion of the numbers of each is not to my advantage.
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I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility.
[Humility]
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I believe the right question to ask, respecting all ornament, is simply this; was it done with enjoyment, was the carver happy while he was about it?
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I do not believe that ever any building was truly great, unless it had mighty masses, vigorous and deep, of shadow mingled with its surface.
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I have been more and more convinced, the more I think of it, that, in general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes. All the other passions do occasional good; but whenever pride puts in its word, everything goes wrong; and what it might really be desirable to do, quietly and innocently, it is mortally dangerous to do proudly.
[Pride]
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I have known twenty persevering girls to one patient one; but it is only the twenty-first one who can do her work, out and out, and enjoy it. For patience lies at the root of all pleasures as well as of all powers.
[Patience]
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I have not written in vain if I have heretofore done anything towards diminishing the reputation of the Renaissance landscape painting.
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I know well that happiness is in little things.
[Happiness]
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If a book is worth reading, it is worth buying.
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If we pretend to have reached either perfection or satisfaction, we have degraded ourselves and our work. God's work only may express that, but ours may never have that sentence written upon it, "Behold it was very good."
[Perfection]
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Imaginary evils soon become real one by indulging our reflections on them.
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Imperfection is in some sort essential to all that we know of life. - Nothing that lives is, or can be rigidly perfect. - The fox-glove blossom, a third part bud; a third part past, and a third part in full bloom, is a type of the life of this world.
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In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.
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In general, when the imagination is at all noble, it is irresistible, and therefore those who can at all resist it ought to resist it. Be a plain topographer if you possibly can; if Nature meant you to be anything else, she will force you to it; but never try to be a prophet.
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In great states, children are always trying to remain children, and the parents wanting to make men and women of them. In vile states, the children are always wanting to be men and women, and the parents to keep them children.
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In old times, men used their powers of painting to show the objects of faith; in later times, they used the objects of faith that they might show their powers of painting.
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In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it. They must not do too much of it. And they must have a sense of success in it.
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In painting as in eloquence, the greater your strength, the quieter your manner.
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In the utmost solitudes of nature the existence of hell seems to me as legibly declared, by a thousand spiritual utterances, as that of heaven.
[Hell]
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It is better to be nobly remembered, than nobly born.
[Nobility]
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