115 quotes
Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.
I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility.
Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.
The Two Paths (1859)
That treacherous phantom which men call Liberty.
Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849)
Man's only true happiness is to live in hope of something to be won by him. Reverence something to be worshipped by him, and love something to be cherished by him, forever.
All violent feelings have the same effect. They produce in us a falseness in all our impressions of external things, which I would generally characterize as the "Pathetic Fallacy."
Modern Painters (1843)
I have always found that the less we speak of our intentions, the more chance there is of our realizing them.
The Ethics of the Dust (1875)
He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.
Modern Painters (1843)
Punishment is the last and least effective instrument in the hands of the legislator for the prevention of crime.
Notes on the General Principles of Employment for the Destitute and Criminal Classes (1868)
Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.
The Two Paths (1859)
All of one's life is a music, if one touches the notes rightly and in time.
The Ethics of the Dust (1875)
Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery.
Modern Painters (1856)
An unimaginative person can neither be reverent nor kind.
Fors Clavigera (1871)
What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.
The Crown of Wild Olive (1866)
The sculptor does not work for the anatomist, but for the common observer of life and nature.
The greatest efforts of the race have always been traceable to the love of praise, as its greatest catastrophes to the love of pleasure.
Sesame and Lilies (1864)
Conceit may puff a man up, but never prop him up.
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.
Modern Painters (1843)
Work first and then rest. Work first, and then gaze, but do not use golden ploughshares, nor bind ledgers in enamel.
The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849)
All true opinions are living, and show their life by being capable of nourishment; therefore of change. But their change is that of a tree — not of a cloud.
Modern Painters (1843)