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

More quotes by John Ruskin

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Ignorance, which is contented and clumsy, will produce what is imperfect, but not offensive. But ignorance dis contented and dexterous, learning what it cannot understand, and imitating what it cannot enjoy, produces the most loathsome forms of manufacture that can disgrace or mislead humanity.
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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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Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.
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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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The entire vitality of art depends upon its being either full of truth, or full of use and that, however pleasant, wonderful, or impressive it may be in itself, it must yet be of inferior kind, and tend to deeper inferiority, unless it has clearly one of these main objects, either to state a true thing, or to adorn a serviceable one.
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Some slaves are scoured to their work by whips, others by their restlessness and ambition.
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Your art is to be the praise of something that you love. It may only be the praise of a shell or a stone.
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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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The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it.
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Greater completion marks the progress of art, absolute completion usually its decline.
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All of one's life is music, if one touches the notes rightly, and in time.
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In the range of inorganic nature. I doubt if any object can be found more perfectly beautiful than a fresh, deep snowdrift, seen under warm light.
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I am far more provoked at being thought foolish by foolish people, than pleased at being thought sensible by sensible people and the average proportion of the numbers of each is not to my advantage.
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All violent feelings have the same effect. They produce in us a falseness in all our impressions of external things, which I would generally characterize as the pathetic fallacy.
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There is nothing so great or so goodly in creation, but that it is a mean symbol of the gospel of Christ, and of the things He has prepared for them that love Him.
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Surely our clergy need not be surprised at the daily increasing distrust in the public mind of the efficacy of prayer.
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The imagination is never governed, it is always the ruling and divine power.
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The world is full of vulgar Purists, who bring discredit on all selection by the silliness of their choice and this the more, because the very becoming a Purist is commonly indicative of some slight degree of weakness, readiness to be offended, or narrowness of understanding of the ends of things.
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All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul.
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Why is one man richer than another? Because he is more industrious, more persevering and more sagacious.
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