Quote #36

All violent feelings have the same effect. They produce in us a falseness in all our impressions of external things, which I would generally characterize as the 'Pathetic Fallacy.'

More from John Ruskin

  1. The word 'Blue' does not mean the sensation caused by a gentian on the human eye; but it means the power of producing that sensation: and t…
  2. And thus, in full, there are four classes: the men who feel nothing, and therefore see truly; the men who feel strongly, think weakly, and …
  3. There is never vulgarity in a whole truth, however commonplace. It may be unimportant or painful. It cannot be vulgar. Vulgarity is only in…
  4. It is only the basest writer who cannot speak of the sea without talking of 'raging waves,' 'remorseless floods,' 'ravenous billows,' etc.;…
  5. The infinity of God is not mysterious, it is only unfathomable; not concealed, but incomprehensible; it is a clear infinity, the darkness o…
  6. The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can ta…
  7. He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.
  8. To invent a story, or admirably and thoroughly tell any part of a story, it is necessary to grasp the entire mind of every personage concer…

All John Ruskin quotes