Quote Origin: No Such Thing As Bad Weather, But Only Different Kinds of Pleasant Weather

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John Ruskin? Ettrick Shepherd? Christopher North? John Wilson? Elisabeth Woodbridge? George Gissing? John Lubbock? Anonymous?

Public domain drawing of Aiguille de Blaitière by John Ruskin

Question for Quote Investigator: Cold, wet, and windy weather is often considered unsatisfactory, but several thinkers contend that there is no such thing as bad weather. All weather is pleasant when examined from the appropriate perspective. Precipitation and fluctuating temperatures are required for the flourishing of plants and animals. Also, stormy weather is aesthetically pleasing to landscape painters.

This notion has been attributed to English writer and art critic John Ruskin, popular English novelist George Gissing, English banker and scientist John Lubbock, and University of Edinburgh Professor of Moral Philosophy John Wilson. Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: John Ruskin delivered this counter intuitive remark about pleasant weather during a lecture at the University of Oxford which was printed in “The Pall Mall Gazette” of London in 1883.

Ruskin praised an artwork by English painter Copley Fielding which depicted drovers working in the rain. Ruskin displayed the painting in the back parlor of his home, but a visitor criticized the picture. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1

“An undergraduate friend, fresh from Eastern travel, was staying with us, and came into the room to see the cause of our ravishment. He looked at the cheerless scene and remarked, ‘But, Ruskin, what is the use of painting such very bad weather?’ To which question I could only make the reply that there was no such thing as bad weather, but only different kinds of pleasant weather—some demanding, indeed, courage and patience for their enjoyment, but all of them fittest in their seasons—best for the hills, for the cattle, the drovers, my master and me!”

Ruskin continued with comments about other artists:

“The weather might be bad for Greek or Saracen, but for us these simple pictures of mountain mist were more precious than Titian’s blue skies or Angelico’s gold rings of Paradise.”

Interestingly, Ruskin was not the first person to assert the non-existence of bad weather as shown below.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

A group of writers published a series of colloquies with imaginary characters called the “Noctes Ambrosianae” in “Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine” between 1822 to 1835. Professor John Wilson published an installment of the series in 1830 with a character named Ettrick Shepherd who employed Scots dialogue:2

Weel, do ye ken, sir, that I never saw in a’ my born days, what I cou’d wi’ a safe conscience hae ca’d—bad weather? The warst has aye had some redeemin’ quality about it that enabled me to thole it without yawmerin’.

Here is one possible rendering into English:

Do you understand, sir, that I have never seen in all my born days what I could in safe conscience call bad weather? The worst has had some redeeming quality about it that enabled me to endure it without complaining.

The character Christopher North was skeptical of the claim, and he suggested that the adage should be inverted:3

Well, if it must be so—first tell me what you meant by averring that there is no such thing in nature as bad weather. I am rather disposed to believe that—whatever may have been the case once—now there is no such thing as good.

In 1842 John Wilson published “The Recreations of Christopher North”. Wilson used the pseudonym Christopher North. The book contained an essay titled “Soliloquy On the Seasons”. Wilson referred to the statement about the weather he composed previously in the voice of Ettrick Shepherd:4

It was poetically and piously said by the Ettrick Shepherd, at a Noctes, that there is no such thing in nature as bad weather.

In 1864 “The Church Monthly” of Boston, Massachusetts published an instance of the saying. Thus, showing that the statement continued to circulate with a linkage to the character Shepherd:5

You need not be kept at home by the stress of bad weather, for as the Ettrick Shepherd says, “there is no such thing as bad weather.”

In 1873 “The Atlantic Coast Guide: A Companion for the Tourist Between Newfoundland and Cape May” contained the following passage:6

And speaking of wrecks, reminds us of the stormy days spent here, in which we vindicated the belief of the Ettrick Shepherd, who declares that there is after all no such thing as bad weather.

John Ruskin delivered a version of the saying during a lecture at the University of Oxford in 1883 as mentioned as the beginning of this article. In 1884 the book “The Art of England: Lectures Given in Oxford by John Ruskin” was published, and it included the saying:7

. . . “But, Ruskin, what is the use of painting such very bad weather?” And I had no answer, except that, for Copley Fielding and for me, there was no such thing as bad weather, but only different kinds of pleasant weather . . .

In 1886 a piece in “The Pall Mall Gazette” printed the saying again:8

. . . one of Mr. Ruskin’s Oxford friends said, after gazing blankly at the cheerless prospects in the pictures, “But, Ruskin, what is the use of painting such very bad weather?” to which “Nature’s priest” replied that there was no such thing as bad weather, but only different kinds of pleasant weather—but that was years and years ago, before the weather went irremediably to the bad, and the “Storm Cloud of the Nineteenth Century” appeared on the horizon.

In 1892 “Meridiana: Noontide Essays” by Sir Herbert Maxwell included an essay titled “Pleasure” which contained a slightly inaccurate instance with the word “delightful” instead of “pleasant”:9

And the remarkable thing about it is, that he who enjoys fine weather most keenly will derive enjoyment from all kinds of weather; indeed Mr Ruskin says in one of his books that there is no such thing as bad weather, only every kind of delightful weather.

In 1894 English banker and scientist Sir John Lubbock published “The Use of Life” which contained an instance written by Lubbock himself together with a slightly inaccurate version ascribed to Ruskin:10

We often hear of bad weather, but in reality, no weather is bad. It is all delightful, though in different ways. Some weather may be bad for farmers or crops, but for man all kinds are good. Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating. As Ruskin says, “There is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”

In 1901 “Thoughts: Selected from the Writings of Favorite Authors” was published by Ladies of Fabiola Hospital Association in Oakland California. A passage from Lubbock’s book was compressed, and the resultant text was incorrectly attributed to Ruskin:11

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. —Ruskin.

In 1902 an article by J. Berryman in “Field: The Country Gentleman’s Newspaper” of London presented another rationale for the rejection of the phrase “bad weather”:12

There is no such thing as “bad” weather. It is simply that it may not suit our feelings or our plans.

In 1903 George Gissing published “The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft” which contained the following:13

For the man sound in body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather; every sky has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously.

In 1905 the magazine “Forest and Stream” published a piece demonstrating that the linkage of the adage to the character Christopher North had not been forgotten:14

But some one has said—probably Christopher North in the “Noctes”—that, “There is no such thing as bad weather.” And truly he is right about it, though you have to be out of doors and away from the pavements to appreciate it.

In 1911 Elisabeth Woodbridge published a story in “The Outlook” of New York which contained a variant saying about clothes:15

“Don’t you think it’s rather poor weather for walking?”
“This was what I had been waiting for, and I responded glibly, “Some one has said there is no such thing as bad weather, there is only good clothes.”

A separate Quote Investigator article about the family of sayings which mention clothing is available here.

In 1938 the eleventh edition of “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations” included an entry for the 1903 quotation by George Gissing.16

In 1969 “Quotations for Speakers and Writers” printed an entry with the slightly incorrect instance attributed to Ruskin:17

There is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
JOHN RUSKIN 1819-1900

In 1974 “Instant Quotation Dictionary” printed the flawed instance attributed to Ruskin:18

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces up, snow is exhilarating; there is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. John Ruskin

In conclusion, in 1830 John Wilson wrote “there is no such thing in nature as bad weather”. In 1883 John Ruskin wrote “there was no such thing as bad weather, but only different kinds of pleasant weather”. In 1903 George Gissing penned another instance in this family of sayings. The saying attributed to Ruskin has evolved over time. In 1894 John Lubbock wrote a related passage containing the phrase “sunshine is delicious” which is sometimes misattributed to Ruskin.

Image Notes: Public domain drawing of Aiguille de Blaitière by John Ruskin circa 1856. The image has been cropped and resized.

Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Jane whose inquiry about a close variant expression led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Also, thanks to the “Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs” (2015) which contains a pertinent entry listing the 1883 Ruskin citation and the 1911 Woodbridge citation. Thanks to Chris Samuel who found the 1902 citation.

Update History: On March 31, 2024 the 1902 citation was added to the article.

  1. 1883 November 19, The Pall Mall Gazette, Mr. Ruskin on the English Landscape School, Quote Page 4, Column 1 and 2, London, England. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
  2. 1830 November, Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 28, Noctes Ambrosianae, Number LII, Start Page 831, Quote Page 833, William Blackwood, Edinburgh, Scotland. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  3. 1830 November, Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 28, Noctes Ambrosianae, Number LII, Start Page 831, Quote Page 834, William Blackwood, Edinburgh, Scotland. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  4. 1842, The Recreations of Christopher North by Christopher North (Christopher North is a pseudonym of John Wilson), Volume 3 of 3, Soliloquy On the Seasons, Quote Page 195, William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh, Scotland. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  5. 1864 April, The Church Monthly, Volume 6, Number 4, The Sunshine of Life, Quote Page 188 and 189, E. P. Dutton and Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  6. 1873, The Atlantic Coast Guide: A Companion for the Tourist Between Newfoundland and Cape May, Chapter 7: Cape Cod, Quote Page 102, E. P. Dutton and Company, New York. (Internet Archive at archive.org) link ↩︎
  7. 1884, The Art of England: Lectures Given in Oxford by John Ruskin (Honorary Student of Christ Church), Lecture 6: The Hill-Side — George Robson and Copley Fielding, Start Page 198, Quote Page 218 and 219, George Allen, Sunnyside, Orpington, Kent, England. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  8. 1886 November 30, The Pall Mall Gazette, Mr. Ruskin’s Autobiography, XX—“The State of Denmark”, Quote Page 5, Column 1, London, England. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
  9. 1892, Meridiana: Noontide Essays by Sir Herbert Maxwell, Essay: Pleasure, Start Page 234, Quote Page 264, William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh, Scotland. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  10. 1894, The Use of Life by The Right Hon. Sir John Lubbock, Quote Page 69, Macmillan and Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  11. 1901 Copyright, Thoughts: Selected from the Writings of Favorite Authors by Ladies of Fabiola Hospital Association in Oakland California, Quote Page 65, Dodge Publishing Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  12. 1902 January 25, Field: The Country Gentleman’s Newspaper, Pike and Weather by J. Berryman, Quote Page 126, Column 1, London, England. (British Newspaper Archive) ↩︎
  13. 1903, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft by George Gissing, Chapter: Winter, Quote Page 213, E. P. Dutton and Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  14. 1905 May 13, Forest and Stream: A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun, An Unsalted Luncheon by Horace Kent Tenney,  Quote Page 371, Column 3, Forest and Stream Publishing Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  15. 1911 April 29, The Outlook, In The Rain by Elisabeth Woodbridge, Start Page 974, Quote Page 975, The Outlook Company, New York, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  16. 1938, Familiar Quotations, Originally Edited by John Bartlett, Eleventh Edition, Edited by Christopher Morley and Louella D. Everett, Entry: George Gissing [1857-1903], Quote Page 729, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  17. 1969, Quotations for Speakers and Writers      , Compiled by Allen Andrews, Topic: Weather-Eternal, Quote Page 481, Column 1, Newnes Books, London and New York, (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
  18. 1974, Instant Quotation Dictionary, Compiled by Donald O. Bolander, Dolores D. Varner, Gary B. Wright, and Stephanie H. Greene, Topic: Weather, Quote Page 274, Career Institute, Mundelein, Illinois. (Verified with scans) ↩︎