John Ruskin Quotes

Everyone can probably do at least one thing better than ten thousand other people.

Mere connection with what is known as a superior race will not permanently carry an individual forward unless the individual has worth.

The thing you like/are good at is a sacred thing.

Each person has his strong point.

People are interested by talent. God is impressed by character

Which is the greater merit, to enlighten the human race, which remains forever, or to save one's fatherland, which is perishable?

Love, like the opening of the heavens to the Saints, shows for a moment, even to the dullest man, the possibilities of the human race. He has faith, hope, and charity for another being, perhaps but a creation of his imagination: still it is a great advance for a man to be profoundly loving even in his imaginations.

Every person on the face of the earth has a gift. In some this reveals itself spontaneously, others have to work to find it.

The new religion will teach the dignity of human nature and its infinite possibilities for development. It will teach the solidarity of the race: that all must rise and fall as one. Its creed will be justice, liberty, equality for all the children of earth.

genius has no limit of sex or race.

The history of the human race is the history of ordinary people who have overcome their fears and accomplished extraordinary things.

Let us learn to accept ourselves-accept the truth that we are capable in some directions and limited in others, that genius is rare, that mediocrity is a portion of almost all of us, but that we can contribute from the storehouse of our skills to the enrichment of our common life.

I was born in a Negro town.

You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link. This is but half the truth. You are also as strong as your strongest link. To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of ocean by the frailty of its foam. To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy.

We're all filled with naturally recurring patterns that make us unique - they're called talents. And our charge is to bloody well use them.

I always knew I had something special.

No good thing is ever lost. Nothing dies, not even life which gives up one form only to resume another. No good action, no good example dies. It lives forever in our race. While the frame moulders and disappears, the deed leaves an indelible stamp, and molds the very thought and will of future generations.

This loving person is a person who abhors waste - waste of time, waste of human potential. How much time we waste. As if we were going to live forever.

Do you know how much energy, how many powers, how many forces, are still lurking behind that frame of yours? What scientist has known all that is in man? Millions of years have passed since man came here, and yet but one infinitesimal part of his powers has been manifested. Therefore, you must not say that you are weak. How do you know what possibilities lie behind that degradation on the surface? You know but little of that which is within you. For behind you is the ocean of infinite power and blessedness.

We were all born carrying a promise -- a promise to make the world better -- and there's a yearning to make good on that promise that none of us can suppress forever.

Not in nature but in man is all the beauty and worth he sees. The world is very empty, and is indebted to this gilding, exalting soul for all its pride.

I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I ever simply estimate it.

The Pole listening to Chopin listens to the voice of his whole race.

Why, man alive, Laura! Just look about you a little. What do you see? A world full of common people! All of 'em born and all of em' going to die! Which of them has one-tenth of your good points! Or mine! Or anyone else's, as far as that goes - gosh! Everybody excels in some one thing. Some in many!

Very few of our race can be said to be yet finished men. We still carry sticking to us some remains of the preceding inferior quadruped organization. We call these millions men; but they are not yet men. Half-engaged in the soil, pawing to get free, man needs all the music that can be brought to disengage him.