“All of one's life is a music, if one touches the notes rightly and in time.”

— John Ruskin, The Ethics of the Dust (1875)

About John Ruskin

1819 – 1900

English art critic and social thinker.

“Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality.”

“God has lent us the earth for our life; it is a great entail.”

“Labour without joy is base. Labour without sorrow is base. Sorrow without labour is base. Joy without labour is base.”

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.”

“The great moral teachers of humanity were, in a way, artistic geniuses in the art of living.”

“Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient.”

“At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it.”

“I know of nothing useful in life except what is beautiful or creates beauty.”

“Life is earnest, art is gay.”