“You were made for enjoyment, and the world was filled with things which you will enjoy, unless you are too proud to be pleased with them, or too grasping to care for what you cannot turn to other account than mere delight. Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless: peacocks and lilies, for instance.”

Volume I, chapter II, section 17
The Stones of Venice (1853)

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John Ruskin 133
English writer and art critic 1819–1900

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“Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.”

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic

Also misattributed to John Steinbeck.
Source: The Works of John Ruskin: The stones of Venice, v. 1-3

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“Remember that the most beautiful things in life are often the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.”

Volume I, chapter II, section 17.
The Stones of Venice (1853)
Variant: Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless.
Context: You were made for enjoyment, and the world was filled with things which you will enjoy, unless you are too proud to be pleased with them, or too grasping to care for what you cannot turn to other account than mere delight. Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless: peacocks and lilies, for instance.

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“Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

1870s

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“After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second glass you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Said about Absinthe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe. Quoted in “Letters to the Sphinx from Oscar Wilde: With Reminiscences of the Author" by Ada Leverson (London: Duckworth, 1930)

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