Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.
John RuskinRead
I fear uniformity. You cannot manufacture great men any more than you can manufacture gold.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that true greatness and individuality cannot be artificially created or produced.
John Ruskin's quote reflects a deep appreciation for the uniqueness of individuals, arguing that greatness arises naturally rather than through standardization or imitation. Just as gold cannot be manufactured, exceptional qualities in people cannot be forced into existence; they emerge from authenticity and individuality. This underscores the importance of nurturing personal identity and originality in a world that often values conformity.
In practice
During a motivational speech about personal growth and uniqueness.
Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.
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.
One thing, however, I know with certainty: violence, or the direct threat of violence, of the kind we have seen in the past few days, is totally unjustified as a response to any published word or image.
I have now come to a stage of realization in which I see that God is walking in every human form and manifesting Himself alike through the sage and the sinner, the virtuous and the vicious. Therefore when I meet different people I say to myself, βGod in the form of the saint, God in the form of the sinner, God in the form of the righteous, God in the form of the unrighteous.
This horror will grow mild, this darkness light.
Every fight is one between different angles of vision illuminating the same truth.
The world is full of people who are determined to be somebody or to give trouble. They want to get ahead, to stand out. Such ambition has no use for a gung fu man, who rejects all forms of self-assertiveness and competition
Written language must be considered as a particular psychic reality. The book is permanent; it is an object in your field of vision. It speaks to you with a monotonous authority which even its author would not have. You are fairly obliged to read what is written.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.