WIST Quotations

Wright, Frank Lloyd -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 13:34:57 +0000

Human beings can be beautiful. If they are not beautiful it is entirely their own fault. It is what they do to themselves that makes them ugly. The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect, interior designer, writer, educator [b. Frank Lincoln Wright]
(Attributed)

Wright, Frank Lloyd -- On Architecture: Selected Writings (1894-1940) (1941)

Dave — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 21:08:29 +0000

Remember that we can own only what we can assimilate and appreciate, no more. Many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect, interior designer, writer, educator [b. Frank Lincoln Wright]
On Architecture: Selected Writings (1894-1940) (1941)
(Source)

Wright, Frank Lloyd -- The Future of Architecture (1953)

Dave — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 12:27:53 +0000

A free America, democratic in the sense that our forefathers intended it to be, means just this: individual freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system of government we call “democracy” is only an expedient to enslave man to the machine and make him like it.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect, interior designer, writer, educator [b. Frank Lincoln Wright]
The Future of Architecture (1953)

Wright, Frank Lloyd -- In New York Times (22 Jun 1958)

Dave — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 12:20:39 +0000

A man is a fool if he drinks before he reaches the age of 50, and a fool if he doesn’t afterward.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect, interior designer, writer, educator [b. Frank Lincoln Wright]
In New York Times (22 Jun 1958)

Wright, Frank Lloyd -- In Geoffrey T Hellman, “Wright Revisited,” The New Yorker (8 Jun 1956)

Dave — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 15:36:02 +0000

An expert is a man who has stopped thinking. Why? He knows.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect, interior designer, writer, educator [b. Frank Lincoln Wright]
In Geoffrey T Hellman, “Wright Revisited,” The New Yorker (8 Jun 1956)
(Source)

Wright used variations on this quotation throughout his life, e.g.:

The expert is usually a man who has stopped thinking and so is perfectly able to be utterly wrong for at least the rest of his lifetime. He has made up his mind, not upon principle, but upon expedient practice.
[Source, Frank Lloyd Wright: An Autobiography, Book 5 "Form" (1943)]

An expert? Generally a man who has stopped thinking because he knows!
[Source]

An expert is a man who has stopped thinking -- he knows.
[Source, in Earl Nesbit, Taliesin Reflections (2006)]

To me an expert is a man who has stopped thinking. He thinks he knows everything.
[Source, in Patrick J. Meehan, Truth Against the World (1987)]

Now, an "expert" is a man who has stopped thinking. He has had to stop thinking or he would be no expert. You can't call a man an "authority" who is growing and so changing his mind about things, can you? No, the expert has got to know or profess he knows. He's got to stand there and be knowledgeable! Well, too bad, because there's no such human except he be somewhat a phoney.
[Source, in Patrick J. Meehan, Truth Against the World (1987)]

An expert is a man who has stopped thinking because he knows and you can do nothing with him if you got a good idea.
[Source, in Patrick J. Meehan, The Master Architect (1984)

Wright, Frank Lloyd -- Lecture (1930-10-02), “To the Young Man in Architecture,” Chicago Art Institute

Dave — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:39:48 +0000

Then go as far away as possible from home to build your first buildings. The physician can bury his mistakes, — but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect, interior designer, writer, educator [b. Frank Lincoln Wright]
Lecture (1930-10-02), “To the Young Man in Architecture,” Chicago Art Institute
(Source)

Closing pieces of advice, #11. One of two lectures delivered at the Institute. While the lectures took place in 1930, they were collected in book form in 1931, which is usually the year they are cited to. Both were reprinted in Wright, The Future of Architecture (1953).

In an article during the lead-up to that book, "Frank Lloyd Wright Talks of His Art," New York Times (1953-10-04), Wright restated the advice, but turned around:

The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines -- so they should go as far as possible from home to build their first buildings.

For more discussion of the origins and variations of this quotation, see: Quote Origin: The Architect Can Only Advise His Client to Plant Vines – Quote Investigator®.