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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.

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
Past
Building
Work
Progress
Men
Nations
Upon
Living
History
Science
Art

More quotes by John Ruskin

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Science has to do with facts, art with phenomena. To science, phenomena are of use only as they lead to facts and to art, facts are of use only as they lead to phenomena.
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If only the Geologists would let me alone, I could do very well, but those dreadful Hammers! I hear the clink of them at the end of every cadence of the Bible verses.
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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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He who has truth at his heart need never fear the want of persuasion on his tongue.
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It is advisable that a person know at least three things, where they are, where they are going, and what they had best do under the circumstances.
John Ruskin
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Ship of the line is the most honourable thing that man, as a gregarious animal, has ever produced.
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You will find that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to help other people, will, in the quickest and delicatest ways, improve yourself.
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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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Whenever you see want or misery or degradation in this world about you, then be sure either industry has been wanting, or industry has been in error.
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I wish they would use English instead of Greek words. When I want to know why a leaf is green, they tell me it is coloured by chlorophyll, which at first sounds very instructive but if they would only say plainly that a leaf is coloured green by a thing which is called green leaf, we should see more precisely how far we had got.
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Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery.
John Ruskin
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All you have really to do is to keep your back as straight as you can and not think about what is upon it. The real and essential meaning of virtue is that straightness of back.
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Without mountains the air could not be purified, nor the flowing of the rivers sustained.
John Ruskin
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Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed in our prisons.
John Ruskin
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Remember always, in painting as in eloquence, the greater your strength, the quieter will be your manner, and the fewer your words and in painting, as in all the arts and acts of life the secret of high success will be found, not in a fretful and various excellence, but in a quiet singleness of justly chosen aim.
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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.
John Ruskin
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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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Every great man is always being helped by everybody, for his gift is to get good out of all things and all persons.
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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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To banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyze vitality.
John Ruskin