Quotes About John Ruskin

Greatness is not a teachable nor gainable thing, but the expression of the mind of a God-made great man.

What is poetry? The suggestion, by the imagination, of noble grounds for the noble emotions.

In the utmost solitudes of nature, the existence of hell seems to me as legibly declared by a thousand spiritual utterances as that of heaven.

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.

Shadows are in reality, when the sun is shining, the most conspicuous thing in a landscape, next to the highest lights.

Of all God's gifts to the sighted man, color is holiest, the most divine, the most solemn.

Some of the most beautiful blues and purples in nature, for instance, are those of mountains in shadow against amber sky...

Imperfections have been divinely appointed, that the law of human life may be effort, and the law of human judgment mercy.

The demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art.