John Ruskin vs. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Side-by-side comparison of two thinkers
John Ruskin
1819 – 1900
John Ruskin (1819–1900) was an English art critic, social thinker, and philanthropist, known for influential works such as Modern Painters and The Stones of Venice and for his writings on art, architecture, and social reform.
"It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803 – 1882
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and critical thinking, as well as a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and conformity. Friedrich Nietzsche thought he was "the most gifted of the Americans," and Walt Whitman called Emerson his "master".
"He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues …"
Connections
Both wrote about: