"To watch the corn grow, and the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over ploughshare or spade; to read, to think, to love, to hope, to pray — these are the things that make men happy; they have always had the power of doing these, they never will have the power to do more. The world’s prosperity or adversity depends upon our knowing and teaching these few things: but upon iron, or glass, or electricity, or steam, in no wise."
Thursday, January 6, 2011
John Ruskin's "Modern Painters"
How can I cultivate a life that acknowledges this fact?
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1 comment:
My favorite Ruskin quote is:
The Builder’s Guide
When we build, let us think that we
build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time will come when those stones will
be held sacred because our hands have touched
them, and that men will say, as they look
upon the labor and wrought substance from
them, “See! This our father did for us.”
- John Ruskin
(This was printed in the front of the 1923 edition of Audel’s Carpenters and Builder’s Guide. My father brought the four volume set to me from a flea market in Florida 1993. It was the last gift he gave me before his death July 26, 1993. It is most appropriate because Dad built with Ruskin’s concept in mind. I had the opportunity to read it as a tribute to Dad at his and Mom’s 50th anniversary shower, July 2, 1993.)
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