John Ruskin

"All the best things and treasures of this world are not to be produced by each generation for itself; but we are all intended, not to carve our work in snow that will melt, but each and all of us to be continually rolling a great white gathering snow-ball, higher and higher, larger and larger, along the Alps of human power."

13 likes

Source: John Ruskin (188?). “Works: A joy forever. The art of England. Our fathers have told us. The laws of Fesole. The pleasures of England. Fiction fair and foul. Notes on the construction of sheepfolds. Inaugural address ... Cambridge School of Art, October 29th, 1858. The storm cloud of the nineteenth century. The opening of the Crystal Palace”

About the author

John Ruskin

John Ruskin

Art Critic, Writer

John Ruskin was a 19th-century art critic and social thinker known for his influential works on art, architecture, and society.

All quotes by John Ruskin →

Same author

More quotes by John Ruskin

See all →
John Ruskin Art Critic, Writer

"It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better."

Read quote
John Ruskin Art Critic, Writer

"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives, the cumulative experience of many masters of craftsmanship. Quality also marks the search for an ideal after necessity has been satisfied and mere usefulness achieved."

Read quote
John Ruskin Art Critic, Writer

"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."

Read quote
John Ruskin Art Critic, Writer

"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey."

Read quote