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
The first condition of education is being able to put someone to wholesome and meaningful work.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Education
Let every dawn of the morning be to you as the beginning of life. And let every setting of the sun be to you as its close. Then let everyone of these short lives leave its sure record of some kindly thing done for others; some good strength of knowledge gained for yourself.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Service
It takes a great deal of living to get a little deal of learning.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Learning
A thing is worth precisely what it can do for you; not what you choose to pay for it.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Value
When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.
—John Ruskin
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: Taxes
It is not how much one makes but to what purpose one spends.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Money
In every person who comes near you, look for what is good and strong; honor that; try to imitate it, and your faults will drop off like dead leaves when their time comes.
—John Ruskin
The beginning and almost the end of all good law is that everyone shall work for their bread and receive good bread for their work.
—John Ruskin
Topics: Charity
There is material enough in a single flower for the ornament of a score of cathedrals.
—John Ruskin
The virtue of the imagination is its reaching, by intuition and intensity, a more essential truth than is seen at the surface of things.
—John Ruskin
Of all God’s gifts to the sighted man, color is holiest, the most divine, the most solemn.
—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: Perfection
God has lent us the earth for our life; it is a great entail. It belongs as much to those who are to come after us, and whose names are already written in the book of creation, as to us; and we have no right, by anything that we do or neglect, to involve them in unnecessary penalties, or deprive them of benefits which it was in our power to bequeath.
—John Ruskin
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