If the thing is impossible, you need not trouble yourselves about it; if possible, try for it. — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
If you can draw the stone rightly, everything within reach of art is also within yours. — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
Curiosity is a gift, a capacity of pleasure in knowing, which if you destroy, you make yourself cold and dull. — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
If a great thing can be done, it can be done easily, but this ease is like the of ease of a… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
In the range of inorganic nature. I doubt if any object can be found more perfectly beautiful than a fresh, deep snowdrift,… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
Many thoughts are so dependent upon the language in which they are clothed that they would lose half their beauty if otherwise… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
Bread of flour is good; but there is bread, sweet as honey, if we would eat it, in a good book. — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
If you want knowledge, you must toil for it; if food, you must toil for it; and if pleasure, you must toil… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
There is a satisfactory and available power in every one to learn drawing if he wishes, just as nearly all persons have… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
“If only the Geologists would let me alone, I could do very well, but those dreadful Hammers! I hear the clink of… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
God is a kind Father. He sets us all in the places where he wishes us to be employed. He chooses work… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
Drunkenness is not only the cause of crime, but it is crime; and if any encourage drunkenness for the sake of the… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
If we pretend to have reached either perfection or satisfaction, we have degraded ourselves and our work. God's work only may express… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
Give me some mud off a city crossing, some ochre out of a gravel pit and a little whitening and some coal… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
So long as we see the stones and joints, and are not deceived as to the points of support in any piece… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
No one can explain how the notes of a Mozart melody, or the folds of a piece of Titian's drapery, produce their… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
I do not mean to call an elephant a vulgar animal, but if you think about him carefully, you will find that… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
The very cheapness of literature is making even wise people forget that if a book is worth reading, it is worth buying.… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
Another of the strange and evil tendencies of the present day is the decoration of the railroad station... There was never more… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
But if, indeed, there be a nobler life in us than in these strangely moving atoms; if, indeed, there is an eternal… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
My entire delight was in observing without being myself noticed,- if I could have been invisible, all the better. . . to… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
We are foolish, and without excuse foolish, in speaking of the superiority of one sex to the other, as if they could… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
You must get into the habit of looking intensely at words, and assuring yourself of their meaning, syllable by syllable-nay, letter by… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
You cannot hammer a girl into anything. She grows as a flower does, she will wither without sun; she will decay in… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
If the design of the building be originally bad, the only virtue it can ever possess will be signs of antiquity. — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
A forest of all manner of trees is poor, if not disagreeable, in effect; a mass of one species of tree is… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
All of one's life is music, if one touches the notes rightly, and in time. — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
If you do not wish for His kingdom do not pray for it. But if you do you must do more than… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
The enormous influence of novelty--the way in which it quickens observations, sharpens sensations, and exalts sentiment--is not half enough taken note of… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
You may chisel a boy into shape, as you would a rock, or hammer him into it, if he be of a… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
Trust thou thy Love: if she be proud, is she not sweet? Trust thou thy love: if she be mute, is she… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
Our purity of taste is best tested by its universality, for if we can only admire this thing or that, we maybe… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
Obey something, and you will have a chance to learn what is best to obey. But if you begin by obeying nothing,… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
The force of the guinea you have in your pocket depends wholly on the default of a guinea in your neighbour's pocket.… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
If you want to work for the kingdom of God, and to bring it, and enter into it, there is just one… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
You may assuredly find perfect peace, if you are resolved to do that which your Lord has plainly required--and content that He… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
If there be any one principle more widely than another confessed by every utterance, or more sternly than another imprinted on every… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
If some people really see angels where others see only empty space, let them paint the angels: only let not anybody else… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
It is not possible to find a landscape, which if painted precisely as it is, will not make an impressive picture. No… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
It is a good and safe rule to sojourn in every place as if you meant to spend your life there, never… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
“Occult Theft,--Theft which hides itself even from itself, and is legal, respectable, and cowardly,--corrupts the body and soul of man, to the last fibre… — John Ruskin Copy Share
Mighty of heart, mighty of mind, magnanimous-to be this is indeed to be great in life. — John Ruskin Copy Share
Life is a magic vase filled to the brim, so made that you cannot dip from it nor draw from it; but it overflows… — John Ruskin Copy Share
As in the instances of alchemy, astrology, witchcraft, and other such popular creeds, political economy, has a plausible idea at the root of it. — John Ruskin Copy Share
I am far more provoked at being thought foolish by foolish people, than pleased at being thought sensible by sensible people; and the average… — John Ruskin Copy Share
When we build ... let it not be for present delights nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants… — John Ruskin Copy Share
It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated; far more difficult to sacrifice skill and easy execution in the proper… — John Ruskin Copy Share
It is a good and safe rule to sojourn in every place as if you meant to spend your life there, never omitting an… — John Ruskin Copy Share
“You may trust to the truth of my sympathy; but you must remember that I am engaged in the investigation of enormous religious and… — John Ruskin Copy Share
And remember, child, that nothing is ever done beautifully, which is done in rivalship; or nobly, which is done in pride. — John Ruskin Copy Share
The world is full of vulgar Purists, who bring discredit on all selection by the silliness of their choice; and this the more, because… — John Ruskin Copy Share
Like other beautiful things in this world, its end (that of a shaft) is to be beautiful; and, in proportion to its beauty, it… — John Ruskin Copy Share
All are to be men of genius in their degree,--rivulets or rivers, it does not matter, so that the souls be clear and pure;… — John Ruskin Copy Share
The art of drawing which is of more real importance to the human race than that of writing...should be taught to every child just… — John Ruskin Copy Share
