John Ruskin

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.

He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

You may either win your peace, or buy it:—win it, by resistance to evil;—buy it, by compromise with evil.

Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.

Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.

For certainly it is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will certainly …

The greatest minds are marked by nothing more distinctly than an inconceivable humility, and acceptance of work or instruction in any form, and from any quarter. They will learn from everybody, and do anything that anybody asks, so long as …

You talk of the scythe of Time, and the tooth of Time: I tell you, Time is scytheless and toothless; it is we who gnaw like the worm — we who smite like the scythe. It is ourselves who abolish — ourselves who consume: we are the mildew, …

The first sight of the tomb Ilario di Carreto at Lucca at once altered the course of my life for me… and from that day I left the upholsterer's business in art to those who trade in it, and have guided my work, and limited my teaching, …

He who has the truth at his heart need never fear the want of persuasion on his tongue.

The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions.

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 …

We are to remember, in the first place, that the arrangement of colours and lines is an art analogous to the composition of music, and entirely independent of the representation of facts.

Of human work none but what is bad can be perfect in its own bad way.

the great cry that rises from our manufacturing cities, louder than their furnace blast, is all in very deed for this, — that we manufacture everything there except men; we blanch cotton, and strengthen steel, and refine sugar, and shape …

You must either make a tool of the creature, or a man of him.

The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most.

Of all God's gifts to the sight of man, colour is the holiest, the most divine, the most solemn.

In old times, men used their powers of painting to show the objects of faith; in later times, they used the objects of faith that they might show their powers of painting.

You were made for enjoyment, and the world was filled with things which you will enjoy, unless you are too proud to be pleased with them, or too grasping to care for what you cannot turn to other account than mere delight. Remember that …

How false is the conception, how frantic the pursuit, of that treacherous phantom which men call Liberty.

When we build, let us think that we build for ever.

Work first and then rest. Work first, and then gaze, but do not use golden ploughshares, nor bind ledgers in enamel.

I do not believe that ever any building was truly great, unless it had mighty masses, vigorous and deep, of shadow mingled with its surface.