To be taught to read—what is the use of that, if you know not whether what you read is false or true? To be taught to write or to speak—but what is the use of speaking, if you have nothing to say? To be taught to think—nay, what is the use of being able to think, if you have nothing to think of? But to be taught to see is to gain word and thought at once, and both true.

) (eds. Lectures in the 1860s
Ruskin lectured widely in the 1860s giving the Rede lecture at the University of Cambridge in 1867 for example. John James had sent the piece to Turner who did not wish it to be publiJohn Ruskind.

Today his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism sustainability and craft. His writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture myth to ornithology literature to education and botany to political economy.