770 Quotes by John Ruskin

The very cheapness of literature is making even wise people forget that if a book is worth reading, it is worth buying. No book is worth anything which is not worth much; nor is it serviceable, until it has been read, and re-read, and loved, and loved again; and marked, so that you can refer to the passages you want in it.

This is the true nature of home -- it is the place of Peace; the shelter, not only from injury, but from all terror, doubt and division.

I cannot but think it an evil sign of a people when their houses are built to last for one generation only.

The eye is continually influenced by what it cannot detect; nay, it is not going too far, to say that it is most influenced by what it detects least. Let the painter define, if he can, the variations of lines on which depend the change of expression in the human countenance.

I've seen the Rhine with younger wave, O'er every obstacle to rave. I see the Rhine in his native wild Is still a mighty mountain child.

Beethoven always sounds to me like the upsetting of a bag of nails, with here and there an also dropped hammer.

In every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong; honor that; try to imitate it, and your faults will drop off like dead leaves when their time comes.

The only way to understand the difficult parts of the Bible is first to read and obey the easy ones.

Multitudes think they like to do evil; yet no man ever really enjoyed doing evil since God made the world.