John Ruskin Quotes

• Large fortunes are all founded either on the occupation of land, or lending or the taxation of labor.

  John Ruskin

• Children see in their parents the past, their parents see in them the future; and if we find more love in the parents for their children than in children for their parents, this is sad but natural. Who does not entertain his hopes more than his recollections.

  John Ruskin

• Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.

  John Ruskin

• Nearly all the evils in the Church have arisen from bishops desiring power more than light. They want authority, not outlook.

  John Ruskin

• They are the weakest-minded and the hardest-hearted men that most love change.

  John Ruskin

  Topics in Love

• Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities.

  John Ruskin

  Topics in Ability

• No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish.

  John Ruskin

• The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world… to see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.

  John Ruskin

  Topics in Soul

• You may either win your peace or buy it: win it, by resistance to evil; buy it, by compromise with evil.

  John Ruskin

• Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.

  John Ruskin

• The distinctive character of a child is to always live in the tangible present.

  John Ruskin

• No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.

  John Ruskin

• Government and cooperation are in all things the laws of life. Anarchy and competition, the laws of death.

  John Ruskin

• Be humble as the blade of grass that is being trodden underneath the feet. The little ant tastes joyously the sweetness of honey and sugar. The mighty elephant trembles in pain under the agony of sharp goad.

  John Ruskin

  Tags in Humility

• To use books rightly, is to go to them for help; to appeal to them when our own knowledge and power fail; to be led by them into wider sight and purer conception than our own, and to receive from them the united sentence of the judges and councils of all time, against our solitary and unstable opinions.

  John Ruskin

• Architecture is the work of nations.

  John Ruskin

  Tags in Architecture

• Mountains are to the rest of the body of the earth, what violent muscular action is to the body of man. The muscles and tendons of its anatomy are, in the mountain, brought out with force and convulsive energy, full of expression, passion, and strength.

  John Ruskin

• You may chisel a boy into shape, as you would a rock, or hammer him into it, if he be of a better kind, as you would a piece of bronze. But you cannot hammer a girl into anything. She grows as a flower does.

  John Ruskin

• The first condition of education is being able to put someone to wholesome and meaningful work.

  John Ruskin

  Topics in Education, Work

• The root of almost every schism and heresy from which the Christian Church has suffered, has been because of the effort of men to earn, rather than receive their salvation; and the reason preaching is so commonly ineffective is, that it often calls on people to work for God rather than letting God work through them.

  John Ruskin

  Topics in God, Work

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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