Quote#Books & Reading
It is only the basest writer who cannot speak of the sea without…
Quote byJohn Ruskin · 1819–1900
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Modern Painters (1843-1860), Volume III, part IV, chapter XII (1856).
English (original)
It is only the basest writer who cannot speak of the sea without talking of "raging waves," "remorseless floods," "ravenous billows," etc.; and it is one of the signs of the highest power in a writer to check all such habits of thought, and to keep his eyes fixed firmly on the pure fact, out of which if any feeling comes to him or his reader, he knows it must be a true one.
— John Ruskin
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