Hero of Sustainability
John Ruskin (1819–1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and social commentator of the Victorian era. He was a polymath who wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, mythology, ornithology, literature, education, design, botany and political economy.
His many ideas and concerns included social justice and rights for workers, the criticism of industrialism, and strong advocacy for arts and crafts. His thinking is widely regarded as an anticipation of contemporary environmentalism and sustainabilism movements.
The following selection of quotes provide a snapshot of his ideas about sustainability, nature, labour, craft and life in general!
John Ruskin quotes
When we build … let it not be for present delights nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think … that a time is to come when these stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor, and the wrought substance of them, See! This our fathers did for us!
No individual rain drop ever considers itself responsible for the flood.
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.
The true end of education is not only to make the young learned, but to make them love learning; not only to make them industrious, but to make them love industry; not only to make them virtuous, but to make them love virtue; not only to make them just, but to make them hunger and thirst after justice.
One can’t be angry when one looks at a penguin.
To banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyze vitality.
If you want knowledge, you must toil for it; if food, you must toil for it; and if pleasure, you must toil for it: toil is the law.
We were not sent into this world to do anything into which we cannot put our hearts.
The best things in life aren’t things.
The best work never was and never will be done for money.
He who can take no interest in what is small will take false interest in what is great.
Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed in our prisons.
Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
The question is not what man can scorn, or disparage, or find fault with, but what he can love, and value, and appreciate.
When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for our use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will look upon with praise and thanksgiving in their hearts.
When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.
Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.
Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.
Order and system are nobler things than power.
There is no wealth but life. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest numbers of noble and happy human beings; that man is richest, who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful influence, both personal, and by means of his possessions, over the lives of others.
Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.