John Ruskin

It is not, truly speaking, the labour that is divided; but the men: divided into mere segments of men - broken into small fragments and crumbs of life, so that all the little piece of intelligence that is left in a man is not enough to make a pin, or a nail, but exhausts itself in making the point of a pin or the head of a nail.

Labour without joy is base. Labour without sorrow is base. Sorrow without labour is base. Joy without labour is base.

There is no law of history any more than of a kaleidoscope.

Without the perfect sympathy with the animals around them, no gentleman's education, no Christian education, could be of any possible use.

Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important.

I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face.

All books are divisible into two classes: the books of the hour, and the books of all time.

What do we, as a nation, care about books? How much do you think we spend altogether on our libraries, public or private, as compared with what we spend on our horses? [cars?]

But whether thus submissively or not, at least be sure that you go to the author to get at his meaning, not to find yours.

Borrowers are nearly always ill-spenders, and it is with lent money that all evil is mainly done.