Quotes from John Ruskin

There is no process of amalgamation by which opinions, wrong individually, can become right merely by their multitude.

the water which has been refused to the cry of the weary and dying, is unholy, though it had been blessed by every saint in heaven; and the water which is found in the vessel of mercy is holy...

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

And thus the... valley became a garden again, and the inheritance, which had been lost by cruelty, was regained by love.

Beautiful art can only be produced by people who have beautiful things about them.

Quality is more important than quantity as it is always the result of intelligent effort

This first period includes the Rise of Venice, her noblest achievements, and the circumstances which determined her cha* Hist- def Rep. Ital., vol. i. ch. v. f Appendix 3.: Serra r Del t Ha Maputo trove mo do Che non uni, non pooch, non molt i, ma molt i bubonic, pooch migliori, e insiememente, ultimo solo.— Ah, well done, Venice! Wisdom

So far, therefore, as the science of exchange relates to the advantage of one of the exchanging persons only, it is founded on the ignorance or incapacity of the opposite person. . . . It is therefore a science founded on nescience. . . . This science, alone of sciences, must, by all available means, promulgate and prolong its opposite nescience. . . . It is therefore peculiarly and alone science of darkness.

Just because we are something better than birds or bees, our buildings must confess that we have not reached the perfection we can imagine, and can not rest in the condition we have attained. If we pretend to have reached either perfection or satisfaction, we have degraded either ourselves or our work.

When a collection of brilliant minds, attitudes, and talents come together... expect a masterpiece

The weakest among us has a gift, however seemingly trivial, which is peculiar to him and which worthily used will be a gift also to his race.

If you will make a man of the working creature, you can not make a tool. Let him but begin to imagine, to think, to try to do anything worth doing; and the engine-turning precision is lost at once. Out comes all his roughness, all the dulness, all his incapability; shame upon shame, failure upon failure, pause after pause:but out comes the whole majesty of him also; and we know the height of it only when we see the clouds settling upon him. And, whether the clouds be bright or dark.

All the pure and noble arts of peace are founded on war; no great art ever yet rose on earth, but among a nation of soldiers. There is no art among a shepherd people, if it remains at peace... there is no great art possible to a nation but that which is based on battle.

You shall have thousands of gold pieces; - thousands of thousands - millions - mountains of gold: where will you keep them?

Matters of any consequence are three-sided, or four-sided, or polygonal; and the trotting round a polygon is severe work for people any way stiff in their opinions. For myself, I am never satisfied that I have handled a subject properly till I have contradicted myself at least three times.

to some of the best and wisest artists among ourselves, it may not be always possible to explain what pretty things they are making … the very perfection of their art is in their knowing so little about it

Great art, whether expressing itself in words, colours, or stones, does not say the same thing over and over again; that the merit of architectural, as of every other art, consists in its saying new and different things; that to repeat itself is no more a characteristic of genius in marble than it is of genius in print; and that we may, without offending any laws of good taste, require of an architect, as we do of a novelist, that he should be not only correct, but entertaining.

Our objective, let it always be remembered, is not the attainment of architectural data, but the formation of taste.

Do not think of your faults; still less of others' faults: in every person who comes near you, look for what is good and strong: honor that; rejoice in it; and, as you can try to imitate it: and your faults will drop off like dead leaves, when their times comes.

No pleasure is taken anywhere in modern buildings, and we find all men of true feeling delighting to escape out of modern cities into natural scenery. It would be well, if in all other matters, we were as ready to put up with what we dislike., for the sake of compliance with established law, as we are in architecture.

Well, Lily, we must go through a little dreadfulness, that's a fact: no road to any good knowledge is wholly among the lilies and the grass; there is rough climbing to be done always.

But to be taught to see is to gain word and thought at once, and both true.

We must see that there is a sublimity and majesty in monotony, when there is not a frequent or rapid variation. This is true throughout all nature. The greater part of the sublimity of the sea depends on its monotony. So also that of desolate moor and mountain scenery; and especially the sublimity of motion.So also there is sublimity in darkness when there is no light.

One man's thoughts can never be expressed by another: and the difference between the spirit of touch of the man. who is inventing, and the man who is obeying directions, is often all the difference between a great and common work of art.