“We require from buildings two kinds of goodness: first, that it shall act well, and do the things it was intended to do in the best way.”
John Ruskin
FunctionDesign Principles
Architecture Quotes
200 FAMOUS QUOTES · ARCHITECTURE
Architecture Quotes
Read the best architecture quotes on design, beauty, buildings and building for the future from Vitruvius, John Ruskin, Louis Sullivan and more.
“Secondly, that it shall speak well, and say the things it was intended to say in the best words; thirdly, that it shall look well.”
John Ruskin
BeautyDesign Principles
“Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.”
John Ruskin
CraftsmanshipArt
“It is one of the chief virtues of the Gothic builders, that they never suffered ideas of outside symmetries and consistencies to interfere with the real use and value of what they did.”
John Ruskin
GothicFunction
“All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul.”
John Ruskin
ArtSoul
“I would have our ordinary dwelling-houses built to last, and built to be lovely; as rich and full of pleasantness as may be, within and without.”
John Ruskin
HomeDurability
“If I were asked to say what is at once the most important production of Art and the thing most to be longed for, I should answer, A beautiful House.”
William Morris
HomeArt
“He should be a good writer, a skilful draughtsman, versed in geometry and optics.”
Vitruvius
ArchitectsSkills
“Eurythmy is beauty and fitness in the adjustments of the members.”
Vitruvius
ProportionBeauty
“Durability will be assured when foundations are carried down to the solid ground and materials wisely and liberally selected.”
Vitruvius
DurabilityFoundation
“Convenience will be assured when the arrangement of the apartments is faultless and presents no hindrance to use.”
Vitruvius
FunctionPlanning
“Beauty will be assured when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste.”
Vitruvius
BeautyTaste
“Time is the architect, the nation is the builder.”
Victor Hugo
TimeNations
“A vast symphony in stone.”
Victor Hugo
CathedralsMusic
“We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
SimplicityBeauty
“Nothing is quite beautiful alone; nothing but is beautiful in the whole.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
HarmonyBeauty
“Why need we copy the Doric or the Gothic model? Beauty, convenience, grandeur of thought and quaint expression are as near to us as to any.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
OriginalityDesign
“Why should not our furniture be as simple as the Arab's or the Indian's?”
Henry David Thoreau
SimplicityInterior Design
“Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have.”
Henry David Thoreau
HomeSimplicity
“Build to-day, then, strong and sure, with a firm and ample base.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
FoundationBuilding
“Let us do our work as well, both the unseen and the seen.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
CraftsmanshipDetail
“While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; when falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall.”
Lord Byron
MonumentsHistory
“I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs; a palace and a prison on each hand.”
Lord Byron
VeniceLandmarks
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley
ImpermanenceMonuments
“The glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome.”
Edgar Allan Poe
ClassicalHistory