John Ruskin Quotes About Genius
-
There are no laws by which we can write Iliads.
→ -
Though you may have known clever men who were indolent, you never knew a great man who was so; and when I hear a young man spoken of as giving promise of great genius, the first question I ask about him always is, Does he work?
→ -
All are to be men of genius in their degree,--rivulets or rivers, it does not matter, so that the souls be clear and pure; not dead walls encompassing dead heaps of things, known and numbered, but running waters in the sweet wilderness of things unnumbered and unknown, conscious only of the living banks, on which they partly refresh and partly reflect the flowers, and so pass on.
→ -
The whole difference between a man of genius and other men, it has been said a thousand times, and most truly, is that the first remains in great part a child, seeing with the large eyes of children, in perpetual wonder, not conscious of much knowledge--conscious, rather of infinite ignorance, and yet infinite power; a fountain of eternal admiration, delight, and creative force within him meeting the ocean of visible and governable things around him.
→ -
Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others; but of the three, the only quite trustworthy one is the last. The acts of a nation may be triumphant by its good fortune; and its words mighty by the genius of a few of its children: but its art, only by the general gifts and common sympathies of the race.
→ -
Genius is only a superior power of seeing.
→
Related Authors
-
Thomas Carlyle Philosopher -
Ralph Waldo Emerson Essayist -
William Shakespeare Poet -
Walter Pater Critic -
Elizabeth Siddal Artist -
William Wordsworth Poet -
Alfred Lord Tennyson Poet -
T. S. Eliot Playwright -
William Morris Artist -
Matthew Arnold Poet -
-
William Holman Hunt Painter -
Oscar Wilde Writer -
Lewis Carroll Writer -
Edward Burne-Jones Artist -
Marcel Proust Novelist -
J. M. W. Turner Painter -
Charles Baudelaire Poet -
Tom Sturridge Actor -
James Whistler Artist