“All that we call ideal in Greek or any other art, because to us it is false and visionary, was, to the makers of it, true and existent.”
– John Ruskin
“All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul.”
– John Ruskin
“Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth.”
– John Ruskin
“Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.”
– John Ruskin
“It is impossible, as impossible as to raise the dead, to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture. That which I have insisted upon as the life of the whole, that spirit which is given only by the hand and eye of the workman, can never be recalled.”
– John Ruskin
“It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.”
– John Ruskin
“No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.”
– John Ruskin
“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
“He that would be angry and sin not, must not be angry with anything but sin.”
– John Ruskin
“Nearly all the powerful people of this age are unbelievers, the best of them in doubt and misery, the most in plodding hesitation, doing as well as they can, what practical work lies at hand.”
– John Ruskin
“No lying knight or lying priest ever prospered in any age, but especially not in the dark ones. Men prospered then only in following an openly declared purpose, and preaching candidly beloved and trusted creeds.”
– John Ruskin