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The finer the nature, the more flaws it will show through the clearness of it and it is a law of this universe that the best things shall be seldomest seen in their best form.

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
Shows
Clearness
Nature
Finer
Form
Flaws
Best
Shall
Things
Seen
Law
Show
Universe

More quotes by John Ruskin

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He who has learned what is commonly considered the whole art of painting, that is, the art of representing any natural object faithfully, has as yet only learned the language by which his thoughts are to be expressed.
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[For men] to feel their souls withering within them, unthanked, to find their whole being sunk into an unrecognized abyss, to be counted off into a heap of mechanism numbered with its wheels, and weighed with its hammer strokes - this, nature bade not, - this, God blesses not, - this, humanity for no long time is able to endure.
John Ruskin
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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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The truth of Nature is a part of the truth of God to him who does not search it out, darkness to him who does, infinity.
John Ruskin
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If you want knowledge, you must toil for it if food, you must toil for it and if pleasure, you must toil for it: toil is the law.
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The art of nations is to be accumulative, just as science and history are the work of living men not superseding, but building itself upon the work of the past.
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In order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work.
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Though nature is constantly beautiful, she does not exhibit her highest powers of beauty constantly, for then they would satiate us and pall upon our senses. It is necessary to their appreciation that they should be rarely shown. Her finest touches are things which must be watched for her most perfect passages of beauty are the most evanescent.
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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
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All great song, from the first day when human lips contrived syllables, has been sincere song.
John Ruskin
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Come, ye cold winds, at January's call, On whistling wings, and with white flakes bestrew The earth.
John Ruskin
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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)
John Ruskin
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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.
John Ruskin
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All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul.
John Ruskin
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Whenever I did anything wrong, stupid or hard-hearted, and I have done many things that were all three, my mother always said it is because you were too much indulged.
John Ruskin
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We were not sent into this world to do anything into which we cannot put our hearts.
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Many thoughts are so dependent upon the language in which they are clothed that they would lose half their beauty if otherwise expressed.
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And besides the problem of land, at its worst, is a bye one distribute the earth as you will, the principal question remains inexorable, Who is to dig it? Which of us, in brief word, is to do the hard and dirty work for the rest, and for what pay?
John Ruskin
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Civilization is the making of civil persons.
John Ruskin
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The beginning and almost the end of all good law is that everyone shall work for their bread and receive good bread for their work.
John Ruskin