John Ruskin Quotes | GloryQuotes

John Ruskin Quotes About Work

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

The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions.

All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul.

Men cannot not live by exchanging articles, but producing them. They live by work not trade.

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

Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning.

All great and beautiful work has come of first gazing without shrinking into the darkness.

Men were not intended to work with the accuracy of tools, to be precise and perfect in all their actions.

John Ruskin Quotes About Art

Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.

Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth.

He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

It is in this power of saying everything, and yet saying nothing too plainly, that the perfection of art consists.

Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts - the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.

No art can be noble which is incapable of expressing thought, and no art is capable of expressing thought which does not change.

All that we call ideal in Greek or any other art, because to us it is false and visionary, was, to the makers of it, true and existent.

I have not written in vain if I have heretofore done anything towards diminishing the reputation of the Renaissance landscape painting.

More Quotes by John Ruskin

The strength and power of a country depends absolutely on the quantity of good men and women in it.

The child who desires education will be bettered by it; the child who dislikes it disgraced.

A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.

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

That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings.

Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.

Education is the leading of human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them.

All books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time.

Modern education has devoted itself to the teaching of impudence, and then we complain that we can no longer control our mobs.

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

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

Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books.

To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education.

Books are divided into two classes, the books of the hour and the books of all time.

It is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star. It is the poetry of Nature; it is that which uplifts the spirit within us.

You might sooner get lightning out of incense smoke than true action or passion out of your modern English religion.

The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.

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

Doing is the great thing, for if people resolutely do what is right, they come in time to like doing it.

The first duty of government is to see that people have food, fuel, and clothes. The second, that they have means of moral and intellectual education.

How long most people would look at the best book before they would give the price of a large turbot for it?

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.

Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.

The sky is the part of creation in which nature has done for the sake of pleasing man.

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.

Skill is the unified force of experience, intellect and passion in their operation.

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

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

No good is ever done to society by the pictorial representation of its diseases.

I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility.

No person who is well bred, kind and modest is ever offensively plain; all real deformity means want for manners or of heart.

Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery.

Beauty deprived of its proper foils and adjuncts ceases to be enjoyed as beauty, just as light deprived of all shadows ceases to be enjoyed as light.

Whether for life or death, do your own work well.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

A thing is worth what it can do for you, not what you choose to pay for it.

Give a little love to a child, and you get a great deal back.

The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most.

To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.

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

It is his restraint that is honorable to a person, not their liberty.

Punishment is the last and the least effective instrument in the hands of the legislator for the prevention of crime.

It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.

There are no such things as Flowers there are only gladdened Leaves.

Taste is the only morality. Tell me what you like and I'll tell you what you are.

Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed in our prisons.

Every great person is always being helped by everybody; for their gift is to get good out of all things and all persons.

A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort.

Browse 111 quotes attributed to John Ruskin, listed in the source data as a English Writer, organized around themes such as Work, Art, Career. Use the topic links to explore similar quotes, or browse the full author collection in one place.