John Ruskin Quotes

"You should read books like you take medicine, by advice, and not by advertisement."

"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."

"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."

"Conceit may puff a man up, but never prop him up"

"Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you."

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

"The first test of a truly great man is his humility. By humility I don't mean doubt of his powers or hesitation in speaking his opinion, but merely an understanding of the relationship of what he can say and what he can do."

"Our duty is to preserve what the past has had to say for itself, and to say for ourselves what shall be true for the future"

"You will find that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to help other people, will, in the quickest and delicatest ways, improve yourself."

"Out of suffering comes the serious mind; out of salvation, the grateful heart; out of endurance, fortitude; out of deliverance faith."

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

"A book worth reading is worth buying."

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

"Not only is there but one way of doing things rightly, but there is only one way of seeing them, and that is, seeing the whole of them."

"An unimaginative person can neither be reverent or kind."

"No person who is not a great sculptor or painter can be an architect. If he is not a sculptor or painter, he can only be a builder."

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

"When we build, let us think that we build for ever."

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

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