John Ruskin Quotes

• Nothing is ever done beautifully which is done in rivalship: or nobly, which is done in pride.

  John Ruskin

• God alone can finish.

  John Ruskin

• When a man is wrapped up in himself he makes a pretty small package.

  John Ruskin

• What is the cheapest to you now is likely to be the dearest to you in the end.

  John Ruskin

• The common practice of keeping up appearances with society is a mere selfish struggle of the vain with the vain.

  John Ruskin

• Men don’t and can’t live by exchanging articles, but by producing them. They don’t live by trade, but by work. Give up that foolish and vain title of Trades Unions; and take that of laborers Unions.

  John Ruskin

• No good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art.

  John Ruskin

  Topics in Art, Perfection, Work

• Conceit may puff a man up, but never prop him up.

  John Ruskin

• The noble grotesque involves the true appreciation of beauty.

  John Ruskin

• The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.

  John Ruskin

• We require from buildings two kinds of goodness: first, the doing their practical duty well: then that they be graceful and pleasing in doing it.

  John Ruskin

• He thinks by infection, catching an opinion like a cold.

  John Ruskin

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

  John Ruskin

• Some slaves are scoured to their work by whips, others by their restlessness and ambition.

  John Ruskin

• This is the true nature of home — it is the place of Peace; the shelter, not only from injury, but from all terror, doubt and division.

  John Ruskin

• In great countries, children are always trying to remain children, and the parents want to make them into adults. In vile countries, the children are always wanting to be adults and the parents want to keep them children.

  John Ruskin

• The best work never was and never will be done for money.

  John Ruskin

• What right have you to take the word wealth, which originally meant ”well-being,” and degrade and narrow it by confining it to certain sorts of material objects measured by money.

  John Ruskin

• An infinitude of tenderness is the chief gift and inheritance of all truly great men.

  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?

  John Ruskin

John Ruskin (207)

Birth:	8th February, 1819
Death:	20th January, 1900
Nationality:	British
Profession:	Critic, Painter, Writer

About

John Ruskin was born in London, England. He was an English art critic, writer and painter. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy. He studied at Christ Church, Oxford University. He served as Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, where he established the Ruskin School of Drawing. His art works shown below: Bernese Oberland, The Garden of San Miniato near Florence, Tower of the Cathedral at Sens, Bellizona, Dawn, Coniston, and Tree Study. He wrote several books include: Modern Painters, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, Pre-Raphaelitism, The Stones of Venice, Political Economy of Art, Unto This Last, and Time and Tide.

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Births

• 1950 - Roy Blunt
• 1930 - Roy E. Disney
• 1931 - Peter Barnes
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Deaths

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• 1982 - Paul Lynde
• 2004 - Alexandra Ripley