770 Quotes by John Ruskin

The more readily we admit the possibility of our own cherished convictions being mixed with error, the more vital and helpful whatever is right in them will become; and no error is so conclusively fatal as the idea that God will not allow us to err, though He has allowed all other men to do so.

One can't be angry when one looks at a penguin.

The training which makes men happiest in themselves also makes them most serviceable to others

Labour without joy is base. Labour without sorrow is base. Sorrow without labour is base. Joy without labour is base.

No day is without its innocent hope.

It ought to be quite as natural and straightforward a matter for a labourer to take his pension from his parish, because he has deserved well of his parish, as for a man in higher rank to take his pension from his country, because he has deserved well of his country.

There was a rocky valley between Buxton and Bakewell?divine as the vale of Tempe; you might have seen the gods there morning and eveningApollo and the sweet Muses of the Light? You enterprised a railroad?you blasted its rocks away? And, now, every fool in Buxton can be at Bakewell in half-an-hour, and every fool in Bakewell at Buxton.

Unless we perform divine service with every willing act of our life, we never perform it at all.

The secret of language is the secret of sympathy and its full charm is possible only to the gentle.