Quotes by John-Ruskin

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The art of a country represents the sum total of its social virtues and ethical forces.

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We must not prefer petty victory to dignified defeat, just as we must not lower our ambitions to be surer of tasting the vanity of success.

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We must not restrain our admiration of great perfections merely because discordant faults are interwoven in them.

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The wise man always finds support in all things, because his gift is to extract love from everything.

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When love and craftsmanship came together, a masterpiece was born.

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How often we find it difficult to show mercy wisely... to do good without multiplying evil...

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We should treat knowledge the same way we treat food. We do not live to know, any more than we live to eat.

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The true faith of man is not to give him peace, but power to work.

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Life without work is theft, work without art is theft.

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A valley, a little still water and the rays of the sunset are the simplest things, the most common, but also the dearest.

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A good deed cannot be done out of hatred; and not out of interest. It is done only out of love.

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Activity is a great thing. If people will confidently do the right thing, they will eventually come to like what they do.

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The ultimate wisdom is not in giving, but in the ability to find pleasure in the smallest things.

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Doing good things is the way to greatness and if you don't do them then no doubt the day will come when you will have to work for evil and not for good.

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The whole problem of education consists in imposing on man not only to do good, but also to revel in that good; not only to work, but also to love his work.

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Our moral sentiments have mixed so badly with the world of reason that we can no longer approach one without also addressing the other. The great mind, once distorted, remains forever a curse.

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Don't let the price of the painting determine its quality, because there will come a time when the painting itself will determine its price.

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I believe in the nobility of the human being, in the greatness of his forces, in the fullness of his mercy and in the joy of loving.

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The essence of the appearance of vulgarity lies in the search for the spectacular.

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Look at each new dawn as the beginning of your life and each sunset as the end of your life. May each of these short lives be marked by a good deed, a victory over self, or the acquisition of knowledge.

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Down hands are not always submissive.

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The qualities are given to the strong and the wise not to oppress the weak, but to help and support them.

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He succeeds in life only whose heart becomes gentler, his blood hotter, his mind more alive, and his spirit calmer.

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Since life is very short and free time is very little, we should not waste it reading worthless books.

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Devote yourself to your work with all your heart and soul, but before you do it, see that it is a good work.

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The path to knowledge is never a silky road strewn with lilies: man is always forced to climb bare rocks.

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Never seek pleasure, but always be ready to find pleasure in everything.

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No man has lived a true life unless he has been purified by a woman's love, strengthened by her courage, and guided by her calm judgment.

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It is not success that deserves rewards, but effort.

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In every moment of our life we ​​must strive to look not for what separates us from other people, but for what we have in common.

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It is not what man might laugh at or mock that is important, but what he would love, appreciate and accept.

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He is always happy who always has before him something which he cannot fully understand, when, always advancing, he knows something more.

"All our history proves that God may he understood, not by reasoning, but by submission to Him and obeyance to His laws. Only by doing this can we understand His will on earth."

"Those who give second place to God in their hearts do not give Him a place at all."

"False shame is the devil’s favorite emotion; it is even worse than false pride. Pride can support evil, but false shame stops goodness."

"One of the major obstacles impeding any positive future change in our lives is that we are too busy with our current work or activity. Levi quit his tax-work, Peter stopped fishing at a lake, Paul ceased being a priest. They all left their jobs because they thought it was necessary."

"Reading and writing do not educate if they do not help people to become kinder to all animals."

"The soul is a mirror in which you can see the reflection of divine intellect."

"Beware of those who want to convince you that it is impossible to strive for good just because it is impossible to reach perfection."

"Truth can be understood only by waiting and watching, and when you get one truth, two more will appear before you."

"Do not bother about what will happen someday, somewhere, in the far away distance, in a future time; think and be very attentive to what happens now, here, in this place."

"You cannot sell your talent, your genius; as soon as you do, you are a prostitute. You can sell your work, but. not. your soul."

"The world would be a terrible place without newborn children, who bring with them innocence, and the hope of man’s further perfection."

"Science fulfills its purpose, not when it explains the reasons for the dark spots on the sun, but when it understands and explains the laws of our own life, and the consequences of violating these laws."

"The way to true knowledge does not go through soft grass covered with flowers. To find it, a person must climb steep mountains."

"Not only is real science not hostile to religion, in fact real science always supports it."

"Knowledge is limitless, and the most scholarly and educated person is as far from true knowledge as an uneducated peasant."

"Remember that you cannot do anything wonderful driven by competition; you cannot do anything noble from pride."

"Power is given to a person, not to oppress the weak, but to support and to help the weak."

"Wise consumption is much more complicated than wise production. What five people will produce, one person can very easily consume, and the question for each individual and for every nation is not how are we to produce, but how our products are to be consumed."

"You can torture people; you can treat them as if they were animals; you can abuse them in all ways; you can kill them as if they were summer flies. But people will remain free in the highest sense because they have eternal souls."

"Do not seek pleasure everywhere, but always be ready find it."

"Great deeds have very remote consequences."

"A wise man always finds some support for himself in everything, because his gift is in obtaining goodness from everything."

"You must know firmly and feel deeply that you should dedicate every day to the good of your fellows, doing everything you can for them. You have to do it and not talk about it."

"All great thoughts are living thoughts, and they can grow and be changed. And they change and grow as a tree, and not as a cloud."

"A person in our society cannot sleep without paying for the place where he sleeps; he has the right to have free air or water or sunlight only when he is on the road. The only right he has is to walk along this road; until he becomes tired, or he cannot walk, he has to continue walking. The bodies of men and women, and even more importantly, their children, should not be bought and sold. So too the water, the land and air, because these things are necessary conditions of this existence."

"We have to fulfill honestly and irreproachably the work destined for us. It does not matter whether we hope that we will become angels some day, or believe that we have originated from slugs."

"The will of God for us is to live in happiness and to take an interest in the lives of others."

"Work, the process of work in itself, is the most important thing for us, and its reward should be of minor importance; if it is, you please your creator, God. If the reward is of major importance for you, and the work itself of minor importance, then you are the slave of the reward and its creator, the devil, and even the lowest and the least among all devils."

"Look at all of your knowledge as a gift, as a means of helping other people. A strong and wise person uses his gifts to support other people."

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Genius is nothing but a higher level of perception.

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The goal of true education is not only to make people do good, but to find their happiness in this; not only to become righteous, but to hunger and thirst for righteousness.

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Knowledge is like money passing from hand to hand. A person has the right to be partially proud of it if he worked for his material himself, made it himself or at least honestly acquired the already made one. But if he didn't do anything like that, he just got it from a passer-by who threw it in his face, on what basis could he be proud of it?

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Two equally destructive prejudices must be avoided: the superstition taught by theologians, according to which the essence of divinity can be expressed in words, and the presupposition of science, according to which divine power can be explained by scientific experiments.

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We are bound to do the work assigned to us honestly and without reproach, regardless of whether we hope to become angels or think we were once snails.

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That man did not live a real life, who was not purified by her love, who was not trained by her courage, who was not guided by her tact.

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To watch the growth of the corn, the popping of the buds, to rest over the ploughshare or the hoe; reading, thinking, loving, hoping, praying - these are the things that make people happy.

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When everything in your hands, head, and heart comes together, well, that's art.

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Where there is no humanity, everything else - nature, world, reason, logic, rank, glory - is useless.

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Between two people, the one who loves nature has greater faith in God.

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A man's real wages are not what he earns by his work, but what he becomes by his work.