Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.
John RuskinRead
To use books rightly, is to go to them for help; to appeal to them when our own knowledge and power fail; to be led by them into wider sight and purer conception than our own, and to receive from them the united sentence of the judges and councils of all time, against our solitary and unstable opinions.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Books should be used as resources to expand our understanding and correct our misconceptions.
In this quote, John Ruskin emphasizes the importance of books in guiding individuals toward greater knowledge and clarity. He suggests that when our own understanding falters, we can seek wisdom from literature, which serves as a collective repository of human thought and judgment. This appeal to books allows us to transcend our limited perspectives and align ourselves with the insights of history's greatest minds.
Themes
BooksKnowledgeWisdomUnderstandingEducation
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech on the value of education, one might quote Ruskin to emphasize the importance of literature.
More from John Ruskin
All quotes →In health of mind and body, men should see with their own eyes, hear and speak without trumpets, walk on their feet, not on wheels, and work and war with their arms, not with engine-beams, nor rifles warranted to kill twenty men at a shot before you can see them.
John RuskinRead
You talk of the scythe of Time, and the tooth of Time: I tell you, Time is scytheless and toothless; it is we who gnaw like the worm - we who smite like the scythe. It is ourselves who abolish - ourselves who consume: we are the mildew, and the flame.
John RuskinRead
To be able to ask a question clearly is two-thirds of the way to getting it answered.
John RuskinRead
See that your children be taught, not only the labors of the earth, but the loveliness of it.
John RuskinRead
A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.
John RuskinRead
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