77 Great Quotes By John Ruskin, The Distinguished Art Critic
![To banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyze vitality.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28088.jpg)
To banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyze vitality.
![It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28089.jpg)
It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride.
![Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28090.jpg)
Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
![All books are divisible into two classes: the books of the hours, and the books of all Time.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28091.jpg)
All books are divisible into two classes: the books of the hours, and the books of all Time.
![The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28092.jpg)
The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most.
![A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small parcel.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28093.jpg)
A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small parcel.
![The highest reward for a man's toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28094.jpg)
The highest reward for a man's toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it.
![Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28095.jpg)
Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.
![A book worth reading is worth owning.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28096.jpg)
A book worth reading is worth owning.
![When love and skill work together, expect a materpiece.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28097.jpg)
When love and skill work together, expect a materpiece.
![All art is but dirtying the paper delicately.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28098.jpg)
All art is but dirtying the paper delicately.
![Every increased possession loads us with new weariness.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28099.jpg)
Every increased possession loads us with new weariness.
![Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28101.jpg)
Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become.
![He who has truth at his heart need never fear the want of persuasion on his tongue.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28102.jpg)
He who has truth at his heart need never fear the want of persuasion on his tongue.
![If a book is worth reading, it is worth buying.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28103.jpg)
If a book is worth reading, it is worth buying.
![There is no wealth but life.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28105.jpg)
There is no wealth but life.
![In order that people may be happy in their work,
these three things are needed:
they must be fit for it;
they must not do too much of it;
and they must have a sense of success in it.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28104.jpg)
In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it.
![Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28107.jpg)
Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.
![Education does not mean teaching people what they do not know. It means teaching them to behave as they do not behave.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28106.jpg)
Education does not mean teaching people what they do not know. It means teaching them to behave as they do not behave.
![Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28109.jpg)
Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.
![Remember that the most beautiful things in life are often the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28110.jpg)
Remember that the most beautiful things in life are often the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.
![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.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28112.jpg)
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.
![Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort. There must be the will to produce a superior thing.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28115.jpg)
Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort. There must be the will to produce a superior thing.
![Modern traveling is not traveling at all; it is merely being sent to a place, and very little different from becoming a parcel.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28111.jpg)
Modern traveling is not traveling at all; it is merely being sent to a place, and very little different from becoming a parcel.
![What we think or what we know or what we believe is in the end of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28113.jpg)
What we think or what we know or what we believe is in the end of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do
![You should read books like you take medicine, by advice, and not by advertisement.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28114.jpg)
You should read books like you take medicine, by advice, and not by advertisement.
![Education...is a painful, continual and difficult work to be done in kindness, by watching, by warning,... by praise, but above all -- by example.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28118.jpg)
Education...is a painful, continual and difficult work to be done in kindness, by watching, by warning,... by praise, but above all -- by example.
![You can only possess beauty through understanding it.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28116.jpg)
You can only possess beauty through understanding it.
![Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28117.jpg)
Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth.
![There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man's lawful prey.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/john-ruskin-28119.jpg)
There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man's lawful prey.