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
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
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 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
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
All of one's life is music, if one touches the notes rightly, and in time. — 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
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 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
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
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
In general, when the imagination is at all noble, it is irresistible, and therefore those who can at all resist it ought… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
In our whole life melody the music is broken off here and there by rests, and we foolishly think we have come… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
I wish they would use English instead of Greek words. When I want to know why a leaf is green, they tell… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
Candlesticks and incense not being portable into the maintop, the sailor perceives these decorations to be, on the whole, inessential to a… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
I tell you (dogmatically, if you like to call it so, knowing it well) a square inch of man's engraving is worth… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
Courage, so far as it is a sign of race, is peculiarly the mark of a gentleman or a lady; but it… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
There is but one question ultimately to be asked respecting every line you draw, Is it right or wrong? If right, it… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
The man who can see all gray, and red, and purples in a peach, will paint the peach rightly round, and rightly… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
It is eminently a weariable faculty, eminently delicate, and incapable of bearing fatigue; so that if we give it too many objects… — 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
If the thing is impossible, you need not trouble yourselves about it; if possible, try for it. — 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 you can draw the stone rightly, everything within reach of art is also within yours. — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
Expression, sentiment, truth to nature, are essential: but all those are not enough. I never care to look at a picture again,… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
The eye is continually influenced by what it cannot detect; nay, it is not going too far, to say that it is… — John Ruskin Copy Share Image
What do you suppose makes all men look back to the time of childhood with so much regret (if their childhood has… — 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
There is in every animal's eye a dim image and gleam of humanity, a flash of strange light through which their life… — 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
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
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
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
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
“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
