Art Quotes by John Ruskin

“All great art is praise.”

— John Ruskin

All art is but dirtying the paper delicately.

— John Ruskin

Science studies the relations of things to each other: but art studies only their relations to man.

— John Ruskin

Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.

— John Ruskin

Never has interest in art been so high, and never has quality been so low.

— John Ruskin

All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul.

— John Ruskin

English artists are usually entirely ruined by residence in Italy.

— John Ruskin

Ornamentation is the principal part of architecture, considered as a subject of fine art.

— John Ruskin

Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth.

— John Ruskin

Life without industry is guilt. Industry without Art is Brutality.

— John Ruskin

Your art is to be the praise of something that you love. It may only be the praise of a shell or…

— John Ruskin

Great art is precisely that which never was, nor will be taught, it is preeminently and finally the expression of the spirits…

— John Ruskin

Depend upon it, the first universal characteristic of all great art is Tenderness, as the second is Truth.

— John Ruskin

Cookery means…English thoroughness, French art, and Arabian hospitality; it means the knowledge of all fruits and herbs and balms and spices; it…

— John Ruskin

He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

— John Ruskin

An artist should be well read in the best books, and thoroughly high bred, both in heart and bearing. In a word,…

— John Ruskin

The art of nations is to be accumulative, just as science and history are; the work of living men not superseding, but…

— John Ruskin

It is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all that he has to say in the fewest…

— John Ruskin

The entire vitality of art depends upon its being either full of truth, or full of use; and that, however pleasant, wonderful,…

— John Ruskin

High art consists neither in altering, nor in improving nature; but in seeking throughout nature for 'whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things…

— John Ruskin

The man who can see all gray, and red, and purples in a peach, will paint the peach rightly round, and rightly…

— John Ruskin

What does cookery mean? It means the knowledge of Medea and of Circe, and of Calypso, and Sheba. It means knowledge of…

— John Ruskin

Remember always, in painting as in eloquence, the greater your strength, the quieter will be your manner, and the fewer your words;…

— John Ruskin

He who has learned what is commonly considered the whole art of painting, that is, the art of representing any natural object…

— John Ruskin

Depend upon it, the first universal characteristic of all great art is Tenderness, as the second is Truth. I find this more…

— John Ruskin

It is not so much in buying pictures as in being pictures, that you can encourage a noble school. The best patronage…

— John Ruskin

“Now observe; if the artist does not understand the sacredness of the truth of Impression, and supposes that, once quitting hold of…

— John Ruskin

“. . . no good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding…

— John Ruskin

Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of…

— John Ruskin

The names of great painters are like passing-bells: in the name of Velasquez you hear sounded the fall of Spain; .in the…

— John Ruskin

It is a shallow criticism that would define poetry as confined to literary productions in rhyme and meter rhythm. The written poem…

— John Ruskin

“It is not that the noble nature loves monotony, any more than it loves darkness or pain. But it can bear with…

— John Ruskin

Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality.

— John Ruskin

All great art is the expression of man's delight in God's work, not his own.

— John Ruskin

Greater completion marks the progress of art, absolute completion usually its decline.

— John Ruskin

If you can draw the stone rightly, everything within reach of art is also within yours.

— John Ruskin

Engraving then, is, in brief terms, the Art of Scratch.

— John Ruskin

No amount of pay ever made a good soldier, a good teacher, a good artist, or a good workman.

— John Ruskin

You will never love art well until you love what she mirrors better.

— John Ruskin

The artist's business is to feel, although he may think a little sometimes... when he has nothing better to do.

— John Ruskin