The greatest efforts of the race have always been traceable to the love of praise, as the greatest catastrophes to the love of pleasure.
John RuskinDepend upon it, the first universal characteristic of all great art is Tenderness, as the second is Truth. I find this more and more every day: an infinitude of tenderness is the chief gift and inheritance of all the truly great men. It is sure to involve a relative intensity of disdain towards base things, and an appearance of sternness and arrogance in the eyes of all hard, stupid, and vulgar people
John RuskinI know few Christians so convinced of the splendor of the rooms in their Father's house, as to be happier when their friends are called to those mansions... Nor has the Church's ardent "desire to depart, and be with Christ," ever cured it of the singular habit of putting on mourning for every person summoned to such departure.
John RuskinWithout the perfect sympathy with the animals around them, no gentleman's education, no Christian education, could be of any possible use.
John Ruskin