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Named source · 1866

The Ethics of the Dust Quotes by John Ruskin: Context & Meanings

1 quotation linked to The Ethics of the Dust by or associated with John Ruskin, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

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John Ruskin’s 1866 lecture-dialogues linking crystallography with conduct and moral education

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Patience, fortitude, work, restraint, pleasure, grief and Ruskin’s distinction between active patience and mere passivity.

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“Patience is the finest and worthiest part of fortitude,—and the rarest, too.”

Ruskin separates patience from mere persistence: fortitude is not only continuing to act, but also bearing delay, frustration and incomplete results without losing steadiness.

Source note: The Ethics of the Dust, Lecture IV, Project Gutenberg #4701. Ruskin immediately contrasts many persevering people with the rarer patient person and later insists that genuine patience is not necessarily passive or idle.