Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.
Interpretation
Endurance and patience are more admirable virtues than mere physical strength and beauty.
This quote by John Ruskin emphasizes that true nobility lies in the qualities of endurance and patience, which are often more difficult to cultivate than superficial attributes like strength and beauty. It suggests that character and the ability to persevere through challenges are of greater value than superficial appearances or raw power.
In practice
In a motivational speech about resilience in tough times.
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.
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.
To be able to ask a question clearly is two-thirds of the way to getting it answered.
See that your children be taught, not only the labors of the earth, but the loveliness of it.
A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.
When men do not love their hearth, nor reverence their thresholds, it is a sign that they have dishonoured both ... Our God is a house-hold God, as well as a heavenly one; He has an altar in every man's dwelling.
It is the way of weakened minds to see everything through a black cloud. The soul forms its own horizons; your soul is darkened, and consequently the sky of the future appears stormy and unpromising
You told me once that we shall be judged by our intentions, not by our accomplishments. I thought it a grand remark. But we must intend to accomplish - not sit intending on a chair.
The truth is, part of me is every age. I’m a three-year-old, I’m a five-year-old, I’m a thirty-seven-year-old, I’m a fifty-year-old. I’ve been through all of them, and I know what it’s like. I delight in being a child when it’s appropriate to be a child. I delight in being a wise old man when it’s appropriate to be a wise old man. Think of all I can be! I am every age, up to my own.
Nothing is finer for the purposes of great productions than a very gradual ripening of the intellectual powers.
Arrogance and fanaticism cause the hardening of positions taken and entrenchment can only lead to a dead end.
A wise man first thinks and then speaks and a fool speaks first and then thinks.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.