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Quotes from The Stones of Venice — John Ruskin

1819–1900 England

← All quotes by John Ruskin

12 quotes

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless: peacocks and lilies, for instance.

The Stones of Venice (1853)

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

The Stones of Venice (1853)

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

The Stones of Venice (1853)

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

The Stones of Venice (1853)

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

The Stones of Venice (1853)

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

The Stones of Venice (1853)

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

The Stones of Venice (1853)

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.

The Stones of Venice (1853)

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.

The Stones of Venice (1853)

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.

The Stones of Venice (1853)

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 the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless: peacocks and lilies, for instance.

The Stones of Venice (1853)

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 pottery; but to brighten, to strengthen, to refine, or to form a single living spirit, never enters into our estimate of advantages.

The Stones of Venice (1853)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: John Ruskin (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.