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

— John Ruskin, Lectures on Art (1870), Lecture III

About John Ruskin

1819 – 1900

English art critic and social thinker.

“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.”

“To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education.”

“For his heart was in his work, and the heart giveth grace unto every Art.”

“The poet shall not spend his time in unneeded work.”

“We need not be artists, but we should be able to appreciate the work of artists.”

“In science, read, by preference, the newest works; in literature, the oldest.”

“A work of art is good if it has grown out of necessity.”

“Works of art are of an infinite solitude, and no means of approach is so useless as criticism.”