65 John Ruskin Quotes On Success In Life

John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, as well as an art patron, draughtsman, watercolorist, philosopher, prominent social thinker, and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany, and political economy. These John Ruskin quotes will motivate you.

Best John Ruskin Quotes

1. “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.” ~ John Ruskin
2. “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.” ~ John Ruskin

3. “The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.” ~ John Ruskin

4. “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.” ~ John Ruskin, John Ruskin quotes on quality
5. “Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.” ~ John Ruskin
6. “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” ~ John Ruskin
7. “Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.” ~ John Ruskin

8. “It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated.” ~ John Ruskin

9. “When we build … let it not be for present delights nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think … that a time is to come when these stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor, and the wrought substance of them, See! This our fathers did for us!” ~ John Ruskin
10. “When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.” ~ John Ruskin

11. “Living without an aim, is like sailing without a compass.” ~ John Ruskin

12. “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.” ~ John Ruskin
13. “God gives us always strength enough, and sense enough, for what He wants us to do; if we either tire ourselves or puzzle ourselves, it is our own fault.” ~ John Ruskin
14. “Kind hearts are the garden, kind thoughts are the roots, kind words are the blossoms, kind deeds are the fruit.” ~ John Ruskin
15. “He only is advancing in life whose heart is getting softer, whose blood warmer, whose brain quicker, whose spirit is entering into living peace. And the men who have this life in them are the true lords or kings of the earth they, and they only.” ~ John Ruskin

16. “The best work never was and never will be done for money.” ~ John Ruskin

17. “The true end of education is not only to make the young learned, but to make them love learning; not only to make them industrious, but to make them love industry; not only to make them virtuous, but to make them love virtue; not only to make them just, but to make them hunger and thirst after justice.” ~ John Ruskin, John Ruskin quotes on education
18. “I believe that the first test of a great man is his humility. I don’t mean by humility, doubt of his power. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not of them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful.” ~ John Ruskin
19. “People are eternally divided into two classes, the believer, builder, and praiser…and the unbeliever, destroyer and critic.” ~ John Ruskin

20. “In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.” ~ John Ruskin

21. “When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.” ~ John Ruskin
22. “Do not think of your faults, still less of other’s faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.” ~ John Ruskin
23. “When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for our use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will look upon with praise and thanksgiving in their hearts.” ~ John Ruskin
24. “Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.” ~ John Ruskin

25. “The best thing in life aren’t things.” ~ John Ruskin

26. “I will not kill or hurt any living creature needlessly, nor destroy any beautiful thing, but will strive to save and comfort all gentle life, and guard and perfect all natural beauty upon the earth.” ~ John Ruskin
27. “He who can take no interest in what is small will take false interest in what is great.” ~ John Ruskin
28. “The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most.” ~ John Ruskin
29. “It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little.” ~ John Ruskin
30. “In every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong.” ~ John Ruskin

31. “Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.” ~ John Ruskin

32. “The whole difference between a man of genius and other men, it has been said a thousand times, and most truly, is that the first remains in great part a child, seeing with the large eyes of children, in perpetual wonder, not conscious of much knowledge–conscious, rather of infinite ignorance, and yet infinite power; a fountain of eternal admiration, delight, and creative force within him meeting the ocean of visible and governable things around him.” ~ John Ruskin
33. “A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.” ~ John Ruskin
34. “It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride.” ~ John Ruskin

35. “All art is but dirtying the paper delicately.” ~ John Ruskin

36. “Make yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts. None of us knows what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought-proof against all adversity. Bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure houses of precious and restful thoughts, which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take away from us.” ~ John Ruskin
37. “If you want knowledge, you must toil for it; if food, you must toil for it; and if pleasure, you must toil for it: toil is the law.” ~ John Ruskin
38. “The Bible is the one Book to which any thoughtful man may go with any honest question of life or destiny and find the answer of God by honest searching.” ~ John Ruskin
39. “It is advisable that a person know at least three things, where they are, where they are going, and what they had best do under the circumstances.” ~ John Ruskin

40. “One can’t be angry when one looks at a penguin.” ~ John Ruskin

41. “I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility.” ~ John Ruskin
42. “On the whole, it is patience which makes the final difference between those who succeed or fail in all things. All the greatest people have it in an infinite degree, and among the less, the patient weak ones always conquer the impatient strong.” ~ John Ruskin
43. “You can only possess beauty through understanding it.” ~ John Ruskin

44. “I know well that happiness is in little things.” ~ John Ruskin

45. “Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.” ~ John Ruskin, John Ruskin quotes on art
46. “Not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the time, and not be discouraged at the rests. If we say sadly to ourselves, “There is no music in a rest,” let us not forget ” there is the making of music in it.” The making of music is often a slow and painful process in this life. How patiently God works to teach us! How long He waits for us to learn the lesson!” ~ John Ruskin
47. “The root of almost every schism and heresy from which the Christian Church has suffered, has been because of the effort of men to earn, rather than receive their salvation; and the reason preaching is so commonly ineffective is, that it often calls on people to work for God rather than letting God work through them.” ~ John Ruskin

48. “To be able to ask a question clearly is two-thirds of the way to getting it answered.” ~ John Ruskin

49. “No human face is exactly the same in its lines on each side, no leaf perfect in its lobes, no branch in its symmetry. All admit irregularity as they imply change; and to banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyze vitality. All things are literally better, lovelier, and more beloved for the imperfections which have been divinely appointed, that the law of human life may be Effort, and the law of human judgment, Mercy.” ~ John Ruskin
50. “There is a working class – strong and happy – among both rich and poor: there is an idle class – weak, wicked, and miserable – among both rich and poor.” ~ John Ruskin

51. “A thing is worth what it can do for you, not what you choose to pay for it.” ~ John Ruskin

52. “There is no harm in anybody thinking that Christ is in bread. The harm is in the expectation of His presence in gunpowder.” ~ John Ruskin
53. “Whereas it has long been known and declared that the poor have no right to the property of the rich, I wish it also to be known and declared that the rich have no right to the property of the poor.” ~ John Ruskin
54. “There is material enough in a single flower for the ornament of a score of cathedrals.” ~ John Ruskin

55. “Give a little love to a child, and you get a great deal back.” ~ John Ruskin

56. “The path of a good woman is indeed strewn with flowers; but they rise behind her steps, not before them.” ~ John Ruskin
57. “A man is born an artist as a hippopotamus is born a hippopotamus; and you can no more make yourself one than you can make yourself a giraffe.” ~ John Ruskin
58. “No individual rain drop ever considers itself responsible for the flood.” ~ John Ruskin
59. “There is no wealth but life. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest numbers of noble and happy human beings; that man is richest, who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful influence, both personal, and by means of his possessions, over the lives of others.” ~ John Ruskin

60. “Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.” ~ John Ruskin

61. “The actual flower is the plant’s highest fulfillment, and are not here exclusively for herbaria, county floras and plant geography: they are here first of all for delight.” ~ John Ruskin
62. “We require from buildings two kinds of goodness: first, the doing their practical duty well: then that they be graceful and pleasing in doing it.” ~ John Ruskin
63. “Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.” ~ John Ruskin
64. “Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close: — then let every one of these short lives leave its sure record of some kindly thing done for others — some goodly strength or knowledge gained for yourselves.” ~ John Ruskin
65. “The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.” ~ John Ruskin

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