Quote

Now the basest thought possible concerning man is, that he has no spiritual nature and the foolishest misunderstanding of him possible is, that he has, or should have, no animal nature. For his nature is nobly animal, nobly spiritual,--coherently and irrevocably so neither part of it may, but at its peril, expel, despise, or defy the other.

John Ruskin

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Thought
Misunderstanding
Part
Peril
Coherently
May
Despise
Basest
Men
Neither
Expel
Animal
Irrevocably
Possible
Nobly
Spiritual
Defy
Nature
Concerning

More quotes by John Ruskin

Image
There is no action so slight or so mean but it may be done to a great purpose, and ennobled thereby.
John Ruskin
Image
Cookery means…English thoroughness, French art, and Arabian hospitality it means the knowledge of all fruits and herbs and balms and spices it means carefulness, inventiveness, and watchfulness.
John Ruskin
Image
See! This our fathers did for us.
John Ruskin
Image
All great song, from the first day when human lips contrived syllables, has been sincere song.
John Ruskin
Image
The secret of language is the secret of sympathy, and its full charm is possible only to the gentle
John Ruskin
Image
No day is without its innocent hope.
John Ruskin
Image
There was a rocky valley between Buxton and Bakewell?divine as the vale of Tempe you might have seen the gods there morning and eveningApollo and the sweet Muses of the Light? You enterprised a railroad?you blasted its rocks away? And, now, every fool in Buxton can be at Bakewell in half-an-hour, and every fool in Bakewell at Buxton.
John Ruskin
Image
To be able to ask a question clearly is two-thirds of the way to getting it answered.
John Ruskin
Image
A forest of all manner of trees is poor, if not disagreeable, in effect a mass of one species of tree is sublime.
John Ruskin
Image
The step between practical and theoretic science, is the step between the miner and the geologist, the apocathecary and the chemist.
John Ruskin
Image
Living without an aim, is like sailing without a compass.
John Ruskin
Image
The path of a good woman is indeed strewn with flowers but they rise behind her steps, not before them.
John Ruskin
Image
Wise laws and just restraints are to a noble nation not chains, but chains of mail, -- strength and defense, though something of an incumbrance.
John Ruskin
Image
Depend upon it, the first universal characteristic of all great art is Tenderness, as the second is Truth.
John Ruskin
Image
Architecture is the art which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by man, that the sight of them may contribute to his mental health, power, and pleasure.
John Ruskin
Image
If some people really see angels where others see only empty space, let them paint the angels: only let not anybody else think they can paint an angel too, on any calculated principles of the angelic.
John Ruskin
Image
No divine terror will ever be found in the work of the man who wastes a colossal strength in elaborating toys for the first lesson that terror is sent to teach us is, the value of the human soul, and the shortness of mortal time.
John Ruskin
Image
It is among children only, and as children only, that you will find medicine for your healing and true wisdom for your teaching.
John Ruskin
Image
The infinity of God is not mysterious, it is only unfathomable not concealed, but incomprehensible it is a clear infinity, the darkness of the pure unsearchable sea.
John Ruskin
Image
We must note carefully what distinction there is between a healthy and a diseased love of change for as it was in healthy love of change that the Gothic architecture rose, it was partly in consequence of diseased love of change that it was destroyed.
John Ruskin