[For men] to feel their souls withering within them, unthanked, to find their whole being sunk into an unrecognized abyss, to be counted off into a heap of mechanism numbered with its wheels, and weighed with its hammer strokes - this, nature bade not, - this, God blesses not, - this, humanity for no long time is able to endure.
John RuskinThe virtue of the imagination is its reaching, by intuition and intensity, a more essential truth than is seen at the surface of things.
John RuskinContrast increases the splendor of beauty, but it disturbs its influence; it adds to its attractiveness, but diminishes its power.
John RuskinI have not written in vain if I have heretofore done anything towards diminishing the reputation of the Renaissance landscape painting.
John Ruskin