quote · Legacy record
To be content in utter darkness and ignorance is indeed unmanly, and therefore we think that to love light and find knowledge must always be right. Yet wherever pride has any share in the work, even knowledge and light may be ill pursued. Knowledge is good, and light is good: yet man perished in seeking knowledge, and moths perish in seeking light; and if we, who are crushed before the moth, will not accept such mystery as is needful to us, we shall perish in like manner.
To be content in utter darkness and ignorance is indeed unmanly, and therefore we think that to love light and find knowledge must always be right. Yet wherever pride has any share in the work, even knowledge and light may be ill pursued. Knowledge is good, and light is good: yet man perished in seeking knowledge, and moths perish in seeking light; and if we, who are crushed before the moth, will not accept such mystery as is needful to us, we shall perish in like manner.
Approximate author period: c. 1859 AD · industrial
Meaning not yet available
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- Author or tradition
- John Ruskin
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1859 AD · industrial
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1819 to 1900; Wikidata Q179126, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q179126 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 280796; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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