John Ruskin

“The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.”

“Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.”

“Modern education has devoted itself to the teaching of impudence, and then we complain that we can no longer control our mobs.”

“I have not written in vain if I have heretofore done anything towards diminishing the reputation of the Renaissance landscape painting.”

“No good is ever done to society by the pictorial representation of its diseases.”

“The child who desires education will be bettered by it; the child who dislikes it disgraced.”

“The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it.”

“Books are divided into two classes, the books of the hour and the books of all time.”

“All books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time.”

“He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.”

“Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.”

“It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated; far more difficult to sacrifice skill and easy execution in the proper place, than to expand both indiscriminately.”

“No art can be noble which is incapable of expressing thought, and no art is capable of expressing thought which does not change.”

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

“It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.”

“Large fortunes are all founded either on the occupation of land, or lending or the taxation of labor.”

“The first duty of government is to see that people have food, fuel, and clothes. The second, that they have means of moral and intellectual education.”

“All great and beautiful work has come of first gazing without shrinking into the darkness.”

“The strength and power of a country depends absolutely on the quantity of good men and women in it.”

“I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility.”