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Disorder in a drawing-room is vulgar in an antiquary's study, not the black battle-stain on a soldier's face is not vulgar, but the dirty face of a housemaid is.

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
Faces
Dirty
Black
Soldier
Drawing
Housemaid
Battle
Housemaids
Room
Stain
Rooms
Stains
Study
Vulgar
Face
Disorder

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The common practice of keeping up appearances with society is a mere selfish struggle of the vain with the vain.
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It is strange that of all the pieces of the Bible which my mother taught me, that which cost me the most to learn, and which was to my childish mind the most repulsive - Psalm 119 - has now become of all the most precious to me in its overflowing and glorious passion of love for the Law of God.
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This is the true nature of home - it is the place of Peace the shelter, not only from all injury, but from all terror, doubt, and division.
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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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Depend upon it, the first universal characteristic of all great art is Tenderness, as the second is Truth.
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In my house there is no attempt whatever to secure harmonies of colour, or form, or furniture.... I am entirely independent for daily happiness upon the sensual qualities of form or colour-when I want them I take them either from the sky or from the fields.
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... Amongst all the mechanical poison that this terrible nineteenth century has poured upon men, it has given us at any rate one antidote - the Daguerreotype. (1845)
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Pleasure comes through toil, and not by self indulgence and indolence. When one gets to love work, his life is a happy one.
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All the other passions do occasional good, but whenever pride puts in its word, everything goes wrong, and what it might really be desirable to do, quietly and innocently, it is mortally dangerous to do, proudly.
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The constant duty of every man to his fellows is to ascertain his own powers and special gifts, and to strengthen them for the help of others.
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Nearly all the evils in the Church have arisen from bishops desiring power more than light. They want authority, not outlook.
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The noble grotesque involves the true appreciation of beauty.
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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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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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Men are more evanescent than pictures, yet one sorrows for lost friends, and pictures are my friends. I have none others. I am never long enough with men to attach myself to them and whatever feelings of attachment I have are to material things.
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The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.
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Books are divided into two classes, the books of the hour and the books of all time.
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Unless we perform divine service with every willing act of our life, we never perform it at all.
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Life is a magic vase filled to the brim, so made that you cannot dip from it nor draw from it but it overflows into the hand that drops treasures into it. Drop in malice and it overflows hate drop in charity and it overflows love.
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