No art can be noble which is incapable of expressing thought, and no art is capable of expressing thought which does not change. – John Ruskin
Punishment is the last and the least effective instrument in the hands of the legislator for the prevention of crime. – John Ruskin
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. – John Ruskin
No person who is well bred, kind and modest is ever offensively plain; all real deformity means want for manners or of heart. – 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
The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world… to see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one. – John Ruskin
I have not written in vain if I have heretofore done anything towards diminishing the reputation of the Renaissance landscape painting. – John Ruskin
Not only is there but one way of doing things rightly, but there is only one way of seeing them, and that is, seeing the whole of them. – John Ruskin
All violent feelings have the same effect. They produce in us a falseness in all our impressions of external things, which I would generally characterize as the pathetic fallacy. – John Ruskin
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. – John Ruskin
Large fortunes are all founded either on the occupation of land, or lending or the taxation of labor. – John Ruskin
All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul. – John Ruskin
Modern travelling is not travelling at all; it is merely being sent to a place, and very little different from becoming a parcel. – John Ruskin
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
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
Cursing is invoking the assistance of a spirit to help you inflict suffering. Swearing on the other hand, is invoking, only the witness of a spirit to an statement you wish to make. – John Ruskin
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
Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder. – John Ruskin