Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.
John RuskinRead
It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated; far more difficult to sacrifice skill and easy execution in the proper place, than to expand both indiscriminately.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Simplicity requires greater effort and skill than complexity.
John Ruskin's quote emphasizes that achieving simplicity in art, communication, or life is a more challenging task than embracing complexity. It suggests that true mastery lies in knowing when to simplify and to execute with precision rather than scattering one's efforts across unnecessary complications.
Themes
SimplicityComplexitySkillExecutionWisdom
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation on effective communication, this quote can highlight the importance of clarity over complexity.
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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