quote · Legacy record
Violet: "Well, but surely at least one ought to be afraid of displeasing God; and one's desire to please Him should be one's first motive." Lecturer: "He never would be pleased with us, if it were, my dear. When a father sends his son out into the world—suppose as an apprentice—fancy the boy's coming home at night, and saying, 'Father, I could have robbed the till to-day; but I didn't because I thought you wouldn't like it.' Do you think the father would be particularly pleased?" (Violet is silent). "He would answer, would he not, if he were wise and good, 'My boy, though you had no father, you must not rob tills.' And nothing is ever done so as really to please our Great Father, unless we would also have done it, though we had had no Father to know of it."
Violet: "Well, but surely at least one ought to be afraid of displeasing God; and one's desire to please Him should be one's first motive." Lecturer: "He never would be pleased with us, if it were, my dear. When a father sends his son out into the world—suppose as an apprentice—fancy the boy's coming home at night, and saying, 'Father, I could have robbed the till to-day; but I didn't because I thought you wouldn't like it.' Do you think the father would be particularly pleased?" (Violet is silent). "He would answer, would he not, if he were wise and good, 'My boy, though you had no father, you must not rob tills.' And nothing is ever done so as really to please our Great Father, unless we would also have done it, though we had had no Father to know of it."
Approximate author period: c. 1859 AD · industrial
Meaning not yet available
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Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- 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.
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- The Optimist’s Good Morning (1911) (1911 AD)
Complete signed selection 156; printed byline: John Ruskin; Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1911; printed copyright 1907
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.