WIST Quotations

Asquith, Margot -- Autobiography, Vol. 2, 5 May 1908 (1922)

Dave — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 17:07:17 +0000

Rich men’s houses are seldom beautiful, rarely comfortable, and never original. It is a constant source of surprise to people of moderate means to observe how little a big fortune contributes to Beauty.

Margot Asquith (1864-1945) British socialite, author, wit [Emma Margaret Asquith, Countess Oxford and Asquith; Margot Oxford; née Tennant]
Autobiography, Vol. 2, 5 May 1908 (1922)
(Source)

Schelling, Friedrich -- Philosophie der Kunst (1809)

Dave — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 21:55:37 +0000

Architecture in general is frozen music.

Friedrich von Schelling (1775-1854) German philosopher
Philosophie der Kunst (1809)

Often attributed to Johann von Goethe, who used a similar description ("frozen music" or "petrified music") in an 1829 letter.

Churchill, Winston -- Speech, House of Commons (28 Oct 1943)

Dave — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 16:34:21 +0000

We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, House of Commons (28 Oct 1943)
(Source)

During the debate over rebuilding the House of Commons, which had been destroyed during a German bombing.

~Other -- Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957) Romanian sculptor, painter, photographer

Dave — Wed, 18 Mar 2020 21:55:04 +0000

Architecture is inhabited sculpture.

(Other Authors and Sources)
Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957) Romanian sculptor, painter, photographer

Quoted in Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Themes and Episodes (1966).

Morris, William -- “The Prospects of Architecture in Civilization,” speech, London (10 Mar 1880)

Dave — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 18:41:51 +0000

Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement: a sanded floor and whitewashed walls, and the green trees, and flowery meads, and living waters outside; or a grimy palace amid the smoke with a regiment of housemaids always working to smear the dirt together so that it may be unnoticed; which, think you, is the most refined, the most fit for a gentleman of those two dwellings?

William Morris (1834-1896) British textile designer, writer, socialist activist
“The Prospects of Architecture in Civilization,” speech, London (10 Mar 1880)
(Source)

Whitlam, Gough -- In the Sydney Morning Herald (29 Dec 1986)

Dave — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 19:24:15 +0000

I don’t go to church, but I always go to cathedrals.

Gough Whitlam (1916-2014) Australian statesman, Prime Minister (1972-75)
In the Sydney Morning Herald (29 Dec 1986)

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- An Inland Voyage, “Noyon Cathedral” (1878)

Dave — Sat, 04 Mar 2017 01:19:33 +0000

I find I never weary of great churches. It is my favorite kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral: a thing as single and specious as a statue at first glance, and yet, on examination, as lively and interesting as a forest in detail.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
An Inland Voyage, “Noyon Cathedral” (1878)
(Source)

Bacon, Francis -- Essex’s Device (1595)

Dave — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 15:38:05 +0000

The monuments of wit and learning are more durable than the monuments of power, or of the hands. For have not the verses of Homer continued twenty-five hundred years or more, without the loss of a syllable or letter; during which time infinite palaces, temples, castles, cities have been decayed and demolished?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
Essex’s Device (1595)

Aaronovitch, Ben -- Broken Homes (2013)

Dave — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 14:32:16 +0000

Landscaping is the great cardinal sin of modern architecture. It’s not your garden, it’s not a park — it’s a formless patch of grass, shrubbery and the occasional tree that exists purely to stop the original developer’s plans from looking like a howling concrete wilderness.

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
Broken Homes (2013)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Essay (1860), “Wealth,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 3

Dave — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 22:28:07 +0000

Art is a jealous mistress, and, if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture, or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1860), “Wealth,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 3
(Source)

Based on a course of lectures, "The Conduct of Life," delivered in Pittsburg (1851-03).

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®.

Adams, Douglas -- Dirk Gently No. 2, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, ch. 1 (1988)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression “as pretty as an airport.” Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort. This ugliness arises because airports are full of people who are tired, cross, and have just discovered that their luggage has landed in Murmansk (Murmansk airport is the only exception of this otherwise infallible rule), and architects have on the whole tried to reflect this in their designs.

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Dirk Gently No. 2, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, ch. 1 (1988)
(Source)

Opening words.

Variant: "It's no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase 'As pretty as an airport' appear."

Fuller, Buckminster -- Shelter Magazine (Nov 1932)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Don’t fight forces, use them.

Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) American architect, engineer
Shelter Magazine (Nov 1932)

The motto of Shelter magazine, when renamed and repurposed by Fuller in 1932 from Philadelphia's old T-Square Club Journal.