John Ruskin Quotes
God has lent us the earth for our life; it is a great entail. It belongs as much to those who are to come after us, and whose names are already written in the book of creation, as to us; and we have no right, by anything that we do or neglect, to involve them in unnecessary penalties, or deprive them of benefits which it was in our power to bequeath.
Ruskin, John. The Seven Lamps of Architecture. Smith, Elder, and Co., 1849, p. 164.
This is one of the early environmental statements.
Duke of Edinburgh. He had recently been informed that his son and his wife were expecting a child.
He was referring to water rights where short term agreements might have disastrous consequences for future generations. Under the WWI Peace Treaty the high court of Egypt was an International Court. President Wilson nominated Crabites to this court and he served there for 3 decades during which he became a world class expert in Middle Eastern affairs. The failure to have a long-term perspective was a Middle Eastern problem then and did not improve in the next century.
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, as well as an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, philosopher, prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy.
