Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.
John RuskinRead
Your honesty is not to be based either on religion or policy. Both your religion and policy must be based on it. Your honesty must be based, as the sun is, in vacant heaven; poised, as the lights in the firmament, which have rule over the day and over the night.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True honesty should be a foundation for beliefs and actions, not merely a byproduct of external systems like religion or policy.
In this quote, John Ruskin emphasizes the importance of integrity and honesty as fundamental principles that should guide one's beliefs and actions. He suggests that honesty should be as inherent and constant as the sun in the sky, indicating that external factors such as religion and politics should be built upon a core of truth, rather than vice versa. This highlights the notion that genuine principles should derive from a personal commitment to honesty rather than serving as mere tools for manipulation or personal gain.
Themes
HonestyIntegrityTruthPhilosophyPrinciples
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about ethical leadership, you might quote this to emphasize the need for honesty.
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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