Great Throughts Treasury

"Less is more."

"God is in the details."

"I don't want to be interesting. I want to be good."

"Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space."

"This is no less true of steel and concrete [than of wood, brick and stone]. We must remember that everything depends on how we use a material, not on the material itself....New materials are not necessarily superior. Each material is only what we make it."

"Let us guide our students over the road of discipline from materials, through function, to creative work. Let us lead them into the healthy world of primitive building methods, where there was meaning in every stroke of an axe, expression in every bite of chisel."

"True education is concerned not only with practical goals but also with values. Our aims assure of us of our material life, our values make possible our spiritual life."

"The long path from material through function to creative work has only one goal: to create order out of the desperate confusion of our time. We must have order, allocating to each thing it's proper place and giving to each thing is due according to it's nature."

"Where can we find greater structural clarity than in the wooden buildings of the old. Where else can we find such unity of material, construction and form? Here the wisdom of whole generations is stored. What feelings for material and what power of expression there is in these buildings! What warmth and beauty they have! They seem to be echoes of old songs."

"Each material has its specific characteristics which we must understand if we want to use it... This is no less true of steel and concrete [than of wood, brick, and stone]. We must remember that everything depends on how we use a material, not on the material itself... New Materials are not necessarily superior. Each material is only what we make of it... We must be as familiar with the functions of our buildings as with our materials. We must learn what a building can be, what it should be, and also what it must not be... And just as we acquaint ourselves with materials, just as we must understand functions, so we must become familiar with the psychological and spiritual factors of our day. No cultural activity is possible otherwise; for we are dependent on the spirit of our time."

"We must be as familiar with the functions of our building as with our materials. We must learn what a building can be, what it should be, and also what it must not be."

"If teaching has any purpose, it is to implant true insight and responsibility. Education must lead us from irresponsible opinion to true responsible judgement. It must lead us from chance and arbitrariness to rational clarity and intellectual order."

"A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous."

"Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins."

"Means must be subsidiary to ends and to our desire for dignity and value."