770 Quotes by John Ruskin

Disorder in a drawing-room is vulgar; in an antiquary's study, not; the black battle-stain on a soldier's face is not vulgar, but the dirty face of a housemaid is.

I desire ... to leave this one great fact clearly stated. THERE IS NO WEALTH BUT LIFE.

It is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will certainly misunderstand them. Generally, also, a downright fact may be told in a plain way; and we want downright facts at present more than anything else.

Our duty is to preserve what the past has had to say for itself, and to say for ourselves what shall be true for the future.

Morality does not depend on religion.

The step between practical and theoretic science, is the step between the miner and the geologist, the apocathecary and the chemist.

The enormous influence of novelty--the way in which it quickens observations, sharpens sensations, and exalts sentiment--is not half enough taken note of by us, and is to me a very sorrowful matter. And yet, if we try to obtain perpetual change, change itself will become monotonous.

Do justice to your brother (you can do that, whether you love him or not), and you will come to love him. But do injustice to him because you don't love him, and you will come to hate him.

It is far better to give work that is above a person, than to educate the person to be above their work.