John Ruskin (1819–1900): English writer and art critic. The library holds 535 quotes by John Ruskin, drawn from Unto This Last, Sesame and Lilies, The Months and other works. The 60 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
What is chiefly needed in the England of the present day is to show the quantity of pleasure that may be obtained by a consistent, well-administered competence, modest, confessed, and laborious.
Twenty people can gain money for one who can use it; and the vital question for individuals and for nations, is never “how much do they make,” but “to what purpose do they spend.”
That which seems to be wealth may in verity be only the gilded index of far-reaching ruin; a wrecker’s handful of coin gleaned from the beach to which he has beguiled an argosy.
That which can be done with perfect convenience and without loss, is not always the thing that most needs to be done, or which we are most imperatively required to do.
(And) the final outcome and consummation of all wealth is in producing as many as possible full-breathed, bright-eyed, and happy-hearted human creatures.
The real science of political economy is that which teaches nations to desire and labour for the things that lead to life; and which teaches them to scorn and destroy the things that lead to destruction.
Idolatry is simply the substitution of an “Eidolon,” phantasm, or imagination of good for that which is real and enduring, from the highest Living Good which gives life, to the lowest material good which ministers to it.
Success (by laws of competition) signifies always so much victory over your neighbour as to obtain the direction of his work and take the profits of it. This is the real source of all great riches.
Economy no more means saving money than it means spending money. It means the administration of a house, its stewardship; spending or saving, that is, whether money or time, or anything else, to the best possible advantage.
Laissez faire—the “let alone” principle, is, in all things which man has to do with, the principle of death. It is ruin to him, certain and total, if he lets his land alone—if he lets his fellow-men alone—if he lets his own soul alone.
In dyeing the spiritual nature there are two processes—first, the cleansing and wringing out, which is the baptism with water; and then the infusing of the blue and scarlet colours, gentleness and justice, which is the baptism with fire.
The soldier’s trade, verily and essentially, is not slaying, but being slain… and the reason the world honours the soldier is because he holds his life at the service of the state.
A man is known to his dog by the smell—to the tailor by the coat—to his friend by the smile; each of these know him, but how little or how much depends on the dignity of the intelligence. That which is truly and indeed characteristic of man is known only to God.
One of the worst diseases to which the human creature is liable is its disease of thinking. If it would only just look at a thing instead of thinking what it must be like, or do a thing instead of thinking it cannot be done, we should all get on far better.
Modern Protestantism sees in the cross, not a furca to which it is to be nailed, but a raft on which it, and all its valuable properties, are to be floated into Paradise.