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Though you may have known clever men who were indolent, you never knew a great man who was so and when I hear a young man spoken of as giving promise of great genius, the first question I ask about him always is, Does he work?

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
Always
Doe
Promise
Never
Young
Genius
Men
May
Question
Firsts
Hear
First
Knew
Indolent
Giving
Asks
Laziness
Great
Though
Spoken
Work
Known
Clever

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I believe that the first test of a great man is his humility. I don't mean by humility, doubt of his power. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not of them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful.
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Science deals exclusively with things as they are in themselves.
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Make yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts. None of us knows what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought-proof against all adversity. Bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure houses of precious and restful thoughts, which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take away from us.
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Such help as we can give to each other in this world is a debt to each other and the man who perceives a superiority or a capacity in a subordinate, and neither confesses nor assists it, is not merely the withholder of kindness, but the committer of injury.
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Work first, and then rest.
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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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Greatness is not a teachable nor gainable thing, but the expression of the mind of a God-made great man.
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Value is the life-giving power of anything cost, the quantity of labour required to produce it its price, the quantity of labourwhich its possessor will take in exchange for it.
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A great thing can only be done by a great person and they do it without effort.
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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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Society has sacrificed its virtues to the Goddess of Getting Along.
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In great countries, children are always trying to remain children, and the parents want to make them into adults. In vile countries, the children are always wanting to be adults and the parents want to keep them children.
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The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.
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Not only is there but one way of doing things rightly, but there is only one way of seeing them, and that is, seeing the whole of them.
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Milton saw not, and Beethoven heard not, but the sense of beauty was upon them, and they fain must speak.
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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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No one can explain how the notes of a Mozart melody, or the folds of a piece of Titian's drapery, produce their essential effects. If you do not feel it, no one can by reasoning make you feel it.
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The first condition of education is being able to put someone to wholesome and meaningful work.
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The sculptor must paint with his chisel half his touches are not to realize, but to put power into, the form. They are touches of light and shadow, and raise a ridge, or sink a hollow, not to represent an actual ridge or hollow, but to get a line of light, or a spot of darkness.
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Production does not consist in things laboriously made, but in things serviceably consumable and the question for the nation is not how much labour it employs, but how much life it produces.
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