Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.
Science studies the relations of things to each other: but art studies only their relations to man.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Science examines the connections between objects, while art focuses on how these objects relate to human experience.
In this quote, John Ruskin distinguishes between the disciplines of science and art, highlighting that science is concerned with understanding the relationships between different entities in the natural world. In contrast, art is portrayed as a deeply human endeavor that seeks to interpret and express the meanings of those relationships as they pertain to human emotions, experiences, and perspectives. This suggests that while science may provide us with knowledge and understanding, art offers us interpretation and emotional resonance.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the importance of creativity, one might cite this quote to illustrate the value of artistic interpretation versus scientific analysis.
More from John Ruskin
All quotes βIn 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.
Similar quotes
You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.
Prose is something that is persistent in staying in one place long enough to not only zero in on the dramatic effect of something that might have happened, or something that might have been seen, but also in watching how it played out and thinking about the cause and the effect.
The reason I play music is to touch people - for selfish reasons, as well. It feels good to make someone else feel something, whether it's a kiss, a painting, good idea or it's a song.
Art is action. The way I live my life to its highest degree is by writing, the practice of art.
I hate pretty. Itβs a very empty word. It gives a bad name to beauty.
...I am driven on by an idea that I really only grasp as it grows with the picture.