Quotes from John Ruskin

The imagination is never governed, it is always the ruling and divine power.

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

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.

Spiritual power begins by directing animal power to other than egoistic ends.

Architecture is the work of nations.

Architecture is the art which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by man, that the sight of them may contribute to his mental health, power, and pleasure.

The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.

I believe the right question to ask, respecting all ornament, is simply this; was it done with enjoyment, was the carver happy while he was about it?

Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.

Absolute and entire ugliness is rare.

It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated; far more difficult to sacrifice skill and easy execution in the proper place, than to expand both indiscriminately.

Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.

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

It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.

The highest reward for a man's toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it.

Every great man is always being helped by everybody; for his gift is to get good out of all things and all persons.

Men cannot not live by exchanging articles, but producing them. They live by work not trade.

Nearly all the powerful people of this age are unbelievers, the best of them in doubt and misery, the most in plodding hesitation, doing as well as they can, what practical work lies at hand.

Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery.

There is a care for trifles which proceeds from love of conscience, and is most holy; and a care for trifles which comes of idleness and frivolity, and is most base.

The sculptor must paint with his chisel; half his touches are not to realize, but to put power into, the form. They are touches of light and shadow, and raise a ridge, or sink a hollow, not to represent an actual ridge or hollow, but to get a line of light, or a spot of darkness.

An infinitude of tenderness is the chief gift and inheritance of all truly great men.

Of all the things that oppress me, this sense of the evil working of nature herself - my disgust at her barbarity - clumsiness - darkness - bitter mockery of herself - is the most desolating.

There is hardly anything in the world that some man can't make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey.