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The first test of a truly great man is his humility. By humility I don't mean doubt of his powers or hesitation in speaking his opinion, but merely an understanding of the relationship of what he can say and what he can do.
John Ruskin
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John Ruskin
Age: 80 †
Born: 1819
Born: February 8
Died: 1900
Died: January 20
Aesthetician
Architect
Art Critic
Art Historian
Journalist
Literary Critic
Painter
Philosopher
Poet
Sociologist
University Teacher
Writer
London
England
Kata Phusin
Rŏsŭkʻin
J. Ruskin
John Rosukin
Jon Rasukin
Dzhon Rëskin
Ruskin
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More quotes by John Ruskin
Milton saw not, and Beethoven heard not, but the sense of beauty was upon them, and they fain must speak.
John Ruskin
The highest thoughts are those which are least dependent on language, and the dignity of any composition and praise to which it is entitled are in exact proportion to its dependency of language or expression.
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It is impossible to tell you the perfect sweetness of the lips and closed eyes, nor the solemnity of the seal of death which is set upon the whole figure. It is, in every way, perfect--truth itself, but truth selected with inconceivable refinement of feeling.
John Ruskin
No girl who is well bred, 'kind, and modest, is ever offensively plain all real deformity means want of manners, or of heart.
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Nothing can be beautiful which is not true.
John Ruskin
Some slaves are scoured to their work by whips, others by their restlessness and ambition.
John Ruskin
The plea of ignorance will never take away our responsibilities.
John Ruskin
Childhood often holds a truth with its feeble finger, which the grasp of manhood cannot retain,--which it is the pride of utmost age to recover.
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All really great pictures exhibit the general habits of nature, manifested in some peculiar, rare, and beautiful way.
John Ruskin
Without mountains the air could not be purified, nor the flowing of the rivers sustained.
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The man who says to one, go, and he goeth, and to another, come, and he cometh, has, in most cases, more sense of restraint and difficulty than the man who obeys him.
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The actual flower is the plant's highest fulfilment, and are not here exclusively for herbaria, county floras and plant geography: they are here first of all for delight.
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It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride.
John Ruskin
There is rough work to be done, and rough men must do it there is gentle work to be done, and gentlemen must do it.
John Ruskin
The greatest glory of a building is not in its stones, nor in its gold. Its glory is in its Age, and in that deep sense of voicefulness, of stern watching, of mysterious sympathy... which we feel in walls that have long been washed by the passing waves of humanity.
John Ruskin
There is no action so slight or so mean but it may be done to a great purpose, and ennobled thereby.
John Ruskin
It is not how much one makes but to what purpose one spends.
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... A power of obtaining veracity in the representation of material and tangible things, which, within certain limits and conditions, is unimpeachable, has now been placed in the hands of all men, almost without labour. (1853)
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It is a matter of the simplest demonstration, that no man can be really appreciated but by his equal or superior.
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High art consists neither in altering, nor in improving nature but in seeking throughout nature for 'whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are pure' in loving these, in displaying to the utmost of the painter's power such loveliness as is in them, and directing the thoughts of others to them by winning art, or gentle emphasis.
John Ruskin