Depend upon it, the first universal characteristic of all great art is Tenderness, as the second is Truth. John Ruskin More Quotes by John Ruskin More Quotes From John Ruskin The child who desires education will be bettered by it; the child who dislikes it disgraced. John Ruskin likes-and-dislikeseducationchildren There is no wealth but life. John Ruskin wealthwisdomlife 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 obediencedevilchance The Training which Makes Men Happiest in themselves ... also Makes Them Most John Ruskin trainingmen Superstition, in all times and among all nations, is the fear of a spirit whose passions are those of a man, whose acts are the acts of a man; who is present in some places, not in others; who makes no places holy and not others; who is kind to one person, unkind to another; who is pleased or angry according to the degree of attention you pay him, or praise you refuse to him; who is hostile generally to human pleasure, but may be bribed by sacrifice of a part of that pleasure into permitting the rest. This, whatever form of faith it colors, is the essence of superstition. John Ruskin sacrificepassionmen Everything that you can see in the world around you presents itself to your eyes only as an arrangement of patches of different colors. John Ruskin colordifferenteye Now the basest thought possible concerning man is, that he has no spiritual nature; and the foolishest misunderstanding of him possible is, that he has, or should have, no animal nature. For his nature is nobly animal, nobly spiritual,--coherently and irrevocably so; neither part of it may, but at its peril, expel, despise, or defy the other. John Ruskin spiritualanimalmen There is nothing so small but that we may honor God by asking His guidance of it, or insult Him by taking it into our own hands. John Ruskin honoraskinghands The great cry that rises from all our manufacturing cities, louder than the furnace blast, is all in very deed for this -- that we manufacture everything there except men. John Ruskin politicalcitiesmen The noble grotesque involves the true appreciation of beauty. John Ruskin nobleappreciationbeauty Color is, in brief terms, the type of love. Hence it is especially connected with the blossoming of the earth; and again, with its fruits; also, with the spring and fall of the leaf, and with the morning and evening of the day, in order to show the waiting of love about the birth and death of man. John Ruskin springmorningfall It ought to be quite as natural and straightforward a matter for a labourer to take his pension from his parish, because he has deserved well of his parish, as for a man in higher rank to take his pension from his country, because he has deserved well of his country. John Ruskin mattermencountry If it is the love of that which your work represents--if, being a landscape painter, it is love of hills and trees that moves you--if, being a figure painter, it is love of human beauty, and human soul that moves you--if, being a flower or animal painter, it is love, and wonder, and delight in petal and in limb that move you, then the Spirit is upon you, and the earth is yours, and the fullness thereof. John Ruskin floweranimalmoving 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 kindmindwant When men do not love their hearth, nor reverence their thresholds, it is a sign that they have dishonoured both ... Our God is a house-hold God, as well as a heavenly one; He has an altar in every man's dwelling. John Ruskin dwellinghomemen Though nature is constantly beautiful, she does not exhibit her highest powers of beauty constantly, for then they would satiate us and pall upon our senses. It is necessary to their appreciation that they should be rarely shown. Her finest touches are things which must be watched for; her most perfect passages of beauty are the most evanescent. John Ruskin natureappreciationbeautiful My entire delight was in observing without being myself noticed,- if I could have been invisible, all the better. . . to be in the midst of it, and rejoice and wonder at it, and help it if I could, - happier if it needed no help of mine, - this was the essential love of Nature in me, this the root of all that I have usefully become, and the light of all that I have rightly learned. John Ruskin naturelightroots It is advisable that a person know at least three things, where they are, where they are going, and what they had best do under the circumstances. John Ruskin threecircumstanceslife Do not think it wasted time to submit yourselves to any influence which may bring upon you any noble feeling. John Ruskin feelingstimethinking It is eminently a weariable faculty, eminently delicate, and incapable of bearing fatigue; so that if we give it too many objects at a time to employ itself upon, or very grand ones for a long time together, it fails under the effort, becomes jaded, exactly as the limbs do by bodily fatigue, and incapable of answering any farther appeal till it has had rest. John Ruskin failuretimelong
