The first test of a truly great man is his humility. By humility I don’t mean doubt of his powers or hesitation in speaking his opinion, but merely an understanding of the relationship of what he can say and what he can do. – John Ruskin
No person who is not a great sculptor or painter can be an architect. If he is not a sculptor or painter, he can only be a builder. – John Ruskin
Doing is the great thing, for if people resolutely do what is right, they come in time to like doing it. – John Ruskin
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
Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning. – John Ruskin
You may either win your peace or buy it: win it, by resistance to evil; buy it, by compromise with evil. – John Ruskin
The principle of all successful effort is to try to do not what is absolutely the best, but what is easily within our power, and suited for our temperament and condition. – 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
There is never vulgarity in a whole truth, however commonplace. It may be unimportant or painful. It cannot be vulgar. Vulgarity is only in concealment of truth, or in affectation. – John Ruskin
It is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star. It is the poetry of Nature; it is that which uplifts the spirit within us. – John Ruskin
Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities. – John Ruskin
Men were not intended to work with the accuracy of tools, to be precise and perfect in all their actions. – 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
The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it. – John Ruskin
Some slaves are scoured to their work by whips, others by their restlessness and ambition. – John Ruskin
All books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time. – John Ruskin
A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money. – John Ruskin
He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas. – John Ruskin
The first duty of a state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed and educated till it attains years of discretion. – John Ruskin
I believe the right question to ask, respecting all ornament, is simply this; was it done with enjoyment, was the carver happy while he was about it? – John Ruskin