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Time and Tide by Weare and Tyne Quotes by John Ruskin: Context & Meanings

3 quotations linked to Time and Tide by Weare and Tyne by or associated with John Ruskin, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

About this source

1867 letters to a working man on the laws of work

Topics and ideas

Labor, vocation, leisure, social organization, education, responsibility, time and the limits of excessive or misdirected work.

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Represented passages

3 quotations with source context and meaning

Source identified1
That is my right work

“That is my right work”

The phrase names the work Ruskin believes best fits his actual abilities, separating a personally appropriate vocation from duties he feels forced to assume by public distress.

Source details

Time and Tide by Weare and Tyne, Letter XIII, “The Proper Offices of the Bishop and Duke; or, Overseer and Leader,” paragraph 69, printed page 46 in Project Gutenberg #31196. Ruskin says “That is my right work” while describing his own preference for drawing hawthorn, primrose, birds and flowers instead of being forced by public distress into political writing; this is local autobiographical vocation context, not a universal career prescription.

Source identified2
Labor without joy is base.

“Labor without joy is base.”

Ruskin rejects an account of labor that treats ceaseless exertion as sufficient in itself, insisting that a right human life must make room for more than work alone.

Source details

Time and Tide by Weare and Tyne, Letter V, “The Corruption of Modern Pleasure—(Covent Garden Pantomime.),” paragraph 21, printed page 16 in Project Gutenberg #31196’s represented Library Edition text. “Labor without joy is base” occurs in Ruskin’s three-part discussion of labor, sorrow and joy and remains Victorian Christian-moral / social argument rather than a modern occupational-health or psychological rule.

Source identified3
the crippling of my temper, and waste of my time.

“the crippling of my temper, and waste of my time.”

Ruskin distinguishes financial cost from the cost imposed on temperament and finite time, recognizing that obligations can consume attention and working capacity as well as money.

Source details

Time and Tide by Weare and Tyne, Letter XIX, “Broken Reeds,” paragraph 117, printed page 77 in Project Gutenberg #31196. Ruskin distinguishes the financial cost of repeated charitable appeals from “the crippling of my temper, and waste of my time,” then explains his own limits and distress. The retained fragment remains autobiographical Victorian social-reform context rather than general advice against helping others or modern mental-health guidance.