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Men have commonly more pleasure in the criticism which hurts than in that which is innocuous, and are more tolerant of the severity which breaks hearts and ruins fortunes than of that which falls impotently on the grave.

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
Hearts
Hurts
Hurt
Breaks
Break
Grave
Pleasure
Falls
Innocuous
Fall
Ruins
Severity
Heart
Graves
Fortunes
Men
Fortune
Tolerant
Criticism
Commonly

More quotes by John Ruskin

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No peace was ever won from fate by subterfuge or argument no peace is ever in store for any of us, but that which we shall win by victory over shame or sin--victory over the sin that oppresses, as well as over that which corrupts.
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My mother's influence in molding my character was conspicuous. She forced me to learn daily long chapters of the Bible by heart. To that discipline and patient, accurate resolve I owe not only much of my general power of taking pains, but of the best part of my taste for literature.
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Your labor only may be sold, your soul must not.
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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.
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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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Variety is a positive requisite even in the character of our food.
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Living without an aim, is like sailing without a compass.
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God alone can finish.
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If the thing is impossible, you need not trouble yourselves about it if possible, try for it.
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The principle of all successful effort is to try to do not what is absolutely the best, but what is easily within our power, and suited for our temperament and condition.
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All great song, from the first day when human lips contrived syllables, has been sincere song.
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English artists are usually entirely ruined by residence in Italy.
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All really great pictures exhibit the general habits of nature, manifested in some peculiar, rare, and beautiful way.
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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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Not without design does God write the music of our lives.
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Other men used their effete faiths and mean faculties with a high moral purpose. The Venetian gave the most earnest faith, and the lordliest faculty, to gild the shadows of an antechamber, or heighten the splendours of a holiday.
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The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion, all in one.
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When men are rightly occupied, their amusement grows out of their work.
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There is no action so slight or so mean but it may be done to a great purpose, and ennobled thereby.
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The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.
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