Still, this is an interesting question. The lines of code may be less, yet the method and variable names may be much longer. There are at times many ways to do things, yet the language reads very english sentence-like. The language is focused on developers, not on compilers.
Is Ruby your first OO language? Was
Java? (just curious).
I've found Ruby to meet my language expectations better, have a lower barrier-to-entry, and read a lot nicer (than Java).
I've also found they syntax of Ruby to be a bit more Perl-ish that I'd hoped for, though because I enjoy using the language so much - I'll give it that concession.