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the patient and indefatigable touch of a mighty master becomes more wonderful to me than to others.
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“the patient and indefatigable touch of a mighty master becomes more wonderful to me than to others.”

John Ruskin

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Source
Lectures on Art, Delivered Before the University of Oxford in Hilary Term, 1870
Date
1870
Meaning

Meaning of “the patient and indefatigable touch of a mighty…”

Ruskin describes patient technical execution as something that becomes more impressive when the viewer understands, through practice, how difficult such sustained control is.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Lectures on Art, Lecture III, Project Gutenberg #19164. The sentence follows Ruskin’s admission that his own impatience helps him notice patient workmanship.

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Themes

Ideas connected with this quotation

ArtCreativityEffortGratitudeHappinessHard WorkJoyPatiencePerseverance Quotes About Sustained EffortPositive Quotes About a Constructive OutlookSuccess
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No man can read the evidence of labour who is not himself laborious, for he does not know what the work cost
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“No man can read the evidence of labour who is not himself laborious, for he does not know what the work cost”

John Ruskin · Lectures on Art, Delivered Before the University of Oxford in Hilary Term, 1870 · 1870
Meaning & context

Experience of sustained effort can deepen appreciation of the labour embedded in another person’s work because the observer has some basis for understanding its cost.

Source details

Lectures on Art, Lecture III, Project Gutenberg #19164. Ruskin is discussing how practice changes the viewer’s ability to recognize workmanship in art.

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Our birthright is made up of something far more imperishable. It consists of the sum of the useful effects of human skill and labour.
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“Our birthright is made up of something far more imperishable. It consists of the sum of the useful effects of human skill and labour.”

Samuel Smiles · Thrift · 1875
Meaning & context

Smiles values inherited skill and labour more highly than material wealth alone, framing social inheritance as accumulated useful human capability.

Source details

Thrift, Chapter I, “Industry,” Project Gutenberg #14418. Smiles contrasts inherited material wealth with the more durable inheritance of useful human skill and labour transmitted across generations by teaching and example.

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These crests only rise on the back of constant labour.
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“These crests only rise on the back of constant labour.”

Arthur Quiller-Couch · On The Art of Reading · 1920
Meaning & context

Peak creative moments are described as resting on repeated labor, rejecting the idea that successful writing can be separated from sustained preparation.

Source details

On The Art of Reading, Lecture V, Project Gutenberg #16579; “crests” refers to exceptional moments of successful writing described immediately before.

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So, in writing, only out of long preparation can come the truly triumphant flash
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“So, in writing, only out of long preparation can come the truly triumphant flash”

Arthur Quiller-Couch · On The Art of Reading · 1920
Meaning & context

The sudden-looking breakthrough is placed at the end of preparation rather than outside it: memorable execution is supported by work accumulated beforehand.

Source details

On The Art of Reading, Lecture V, Project Gutenberg #16579; excerpted from Quiller-Couch’s analogy between writing practice and concentrated performance.

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They discovered art and science, and we succeed to the useful effects of their labours.
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“They discovered art and science, and we succeed to the useful effects of their labours.”

Samuel Smiles · Thrift · 1875
Meaning & context

Creative and scientific achievements are described as an inheritance whose benefits pass beyond the original workers, inviting appreciation of accumulated human effort.

Source details

Thrift, Chapter I, “Industry,” Project Gutenberg #14418. The “they” refers to earlier generations whose tools, fabrics, art and science are presented as an inherited store of useful labour in Smiles’s historical account.

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