John Ruskin (1819–1900) was an English critic of art, architecture, and society. A gifted painter and a distinctive prose stylist on top, he influenced the aesthetic values and tastes of Victorian England.
Born in London, Ruskin was educated in Christ Church, Oxford. His prolific writings on art and architecture include Modern Painters (5 vols., 1843–60,) The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849,) and The Stones of Venice (3 vols., 1851–53.) These books established him as the foremost art and social critic of the day.
After 1860, Ruskin devoted himself to social, political, and economic reform. He campaigned for the revival of medieval piety and Christian ideals, especially in opposition to the industrial revolution and the scientific advances of his times.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by John Ruskin
No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish.
—John Ruskin
Books are divided into two classes, the books of the hour and the books of all time.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Books, Reading, Literature
Nothing can be beautiful which is not true.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Beauty, Virtues
How often it is difficult to be wisely charitable—to do good without multiplying the sources of evil. To give alms is nothing unless you give thought also.—It is written, not “blessed is he that feedeth the poor,” but “blessed is he that considereth the poor.” A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Kindness, Charity
Cursing is invoking the assistance of a spirit to help you inflict suffering. Swearing on the other hand, is invoking, only the witness of a spirit to an statement you wish to make.
—John Ruskin
Punishment is the last and the least effective instrument in the hands of the legislator for the prevention of crime.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Punishment
Do not think it wasted time to submit yourself to any influence that will bring upon you any noble feeling.
—John Ruskin
The common practice of keeping up appearances with society is a mere selfish struggle of the vain with the vain.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Vanity
Consider what heavy responsibility lies upon you in your youth, to determine, among realities, by what you will be delighted, and, among imaginations, by whose you will be led.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Youth
O powers illimitable! it is but the outer hem of God’s great mantle, our poor stars do gem.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Stars
How false is the conception, how frantic the pursuit, of that treacherous phantom which men call Liberty: most treacherous, indeed, of all phantoms; for the feeblest ray of reason might surely show us, that not only its attainment, but its being, was impossible. There is no such thing in the universe. There can never be. The stars have it not; the earth has it not; the sea has it not; and we men have the mockery and semblance of it only for our heaviest punishment.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Liberty
Cheerfulness is as natural to the heart of a man in strong health, as color to his cheek; and wherever there is habitual gloom, there must be either bad air, unwholesome food, improperly severe labor, or erring habits of life.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Cheerfulness, Happiness
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
Topics: Economics, Economy
He is only advancing in life, whose heart is getting softer, his blood warmer, his brain quicker, and his spirit entering into living peace.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Progress
I know well that happiness is in little things.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Happiness
To cultivate sympathy you must be among living beings and thinking about them; to cultivate admiration, among beautiful things and looking at them.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Admiration
God gives us always strength enough, and sense enough, for everything He wants us to do.
—John Ruskin
Doing is the great thing, for if people resolutely do what is right, they come in time to like doing it.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Enjoyment
The best thing in life aren’t things.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Value
The architecture of a nation is great only when it is as universal and established as its language, and when provinncial differences are nothing more than so many dialects.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Architecture
A thing is worth precisely what it can do for you; not what you choose to pay for it.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Value
No one can become rich by the efforts of only their toil, but only by the discovery of some method of taxing the labor of others.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Taxation, Taxes
Obey something, and you will have a chance to learn what is best to obey. But if you begin by obeying nothing, you will end by obeying the devil and all his invited friends.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Obedience
The imagination is never governed, it is always the ruling and divine power.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Power, Imagination
No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Science, Architecture
Fit yourself for the best society, and then, never enter it.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Class
Along the iron veins that traverse the frame of our country, beat and flow the fiery pulses of its exertion, hotter and faster every hour. All vitality is concentrated through those throbbing arteries into the central cities; the country is passed over like a green sea by narrow bridges, and we are thrown back in continually closer crowds on the city gates.
—John Ruskin
The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Slavery
The highest reward for a man’s toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Work
Some slaves are scoured to their work by whips, others by their restlessness and ambition.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Slavery
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