Architecture Quotes by John Ruskin

Architecture ... the adaptation of form to resist force.

— John Ruskin

Don't just look at buildings ... watch them.

— John Ruskin

No architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.

— John Ruskin

Architecture is the work of nations

— John Ruskin

When we build, let us think that we build forever.

— John Ruskin

No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.

— John Ruskin

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

— John Ruskin

If the design of the building be originally bad, the only virtue it can ever possess will be signs of antiquity.

— John Ruskin

No person who is not a great sculptor or painter can be an architect. If he is not a sculptor or painter,…

— John Ruskin

The relative majesty of buildings depends more on the weight and vigour of their masses than any other tribute of their design.

— John Ruskin

Architecture concerns itself only with those characters of an edifice which are above and beyond its common use.

— John Ruskin

It was stated, . . . that the value of architecture depended on two distinct characters:--the one, the impression it receives from…

— John Ruskin

It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is…

— John Ruskin

We must note carefully what distinction there is between a healthy and a diseased love of change; for as it was in…

— John Ruskin

It is impossible, as impossible as to raise the dead, to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture.…

— John Ruskin

In one point of view, Gothic is not only the best, but the only rational architecture, as being that which can fit…

— John Ruskin

We require from buildings two kinds of goodness: first, the doing their practical duty well: then that they be graceful and pleasing…

— John Ruskin

I would have, then, our ordinary dwelling-houses built to last, and built to be lovely; as rich and full of pleasantness as…

— John Ruskin

We may, without offending any laws of good taste, require of an architect, as we do of a novelist, that he should…

— John Ruskin

Another of the strange and evil tendencies of the present day is the decoration of the railroad station... There was never more…

— John Ruskin

When we build ... let it not be for present delights nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as…

— John Ruskin

“the only prospect which is really desirable or delightful, is that from the window of the breakfast-room [...] where we meet the…

— John Ruskin

You cannot have good architecture merely by asking people's advice on occasion. All good architecture is the expression of national life and…

— John Ruskin

Architecture is the art which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by man, that the sight of them may contribute to…

— John Ruskin

So long as we see the stones and joints, and are not deceived as to the points of support in any piece…

— John Ruskin

We may live without her, and worship without her, but we cannot remember without her. How cold is all history, how lifeless…

— John Ruskin

An architect should live as little in cities as a painter. Send him to our hills, and let him study there what…

— John Ruskin

It is perhaps the principal admirableness of the Gothic schools of architecture, that they receive the results of the labour of inferior…

— John Ruskin