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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
First
Humility
Mean
Merely
Great
Truly
Men
Relationship
Hesitation
Doubt
Powers
Opinion
Test
Understanding
Speaking
Firsts
Tests

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The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.
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It is not how much one makes but to what purpose one spends.
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Do not think of your faults, still less of other's faults look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.
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The only way to understand these difficult parts of the Bible, or even to approach them with safety, is first to read and obey the easy ones.
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It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.
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We have seen when the earth had to be prepared for the habitation of man, a veil, as it were, of intermediate being was spread between him and its darkness, in which were joined in a subdued measure, the stability and insensibility of the earth, and the passion and perishing of mankind.
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Beethoven always sounds to me like the upsetting of a bag of nails, with here and there an also dropped hammer.
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Sky is the part of creation in which Nature has done more for the sake of pleasing man, more for the sole and evident purpose of talking to him and teaching him, than in any other of her works, and it is just the part in which we least attend to her.
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The path of a good woman is indeed strewn with flowers but they rise behind her steps, not before them.
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He who can take no interest in what is small will take false interest in what is great.
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The first duty of government is to see that people have food, fuel, and clothes. The second, that they have means of moral and intellectual education.
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Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts - the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.
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There is a working class - strong and happy - among both rich and poor: there is an idle class - weak, wicked, and miserable - among both rich and poor.
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To speak and act truth with constancy and precision is nearly as difficult, and perhaps as meretorious, as to speak it under intimidation or penalty
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You do not see with the lens of the eye. You seen through that, and by means of that, but you see with the soul of the eye.
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Skill is the unified force of experience, intellect and passion in their operation.
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Color is, in brief terms, the type of love. Hence it is especially connected with the blossoming of the earth and again, with its fruits also, with the spring and fall of the leaf, and with the morning and evening of the day, in order to show the waiting of love about the birth and death of man.
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Every duty we omit obscures some truth we should have known.
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Freedom is only granted us that obedience may be more perfect.
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