quotes about art, architecture and other important things

a collection of quotes that I gathered over the years through my reading.  I don't necessarily agree with all of the ideas and opinions expressed herein but those that either provoked thought or tickled were included.

July 2014 - studio of Glenn Williams Architect NCARB

experience v.s. education

By | wood boat builder | No Comments

“Kids 50 years ago were information-poor and experience-rich.  They worked on the farm, or with their fathers as fishermen, they mended nets and hauled traps.  Now they’re information-rich and experience-poor.  As Justice Douglas put it, ‘Our culture turns out doctors of philosophy but no philosophers.’  It is sad.”  – –  Lance R. Lee, former Director of Apprenticeshop and wood boat builder

Lance R. Lee

Lance R. Lee

“For there is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness in work…  Properly thou hast no other knowledge but what thou hast got by working; the rest is yet all a hypothesis of knowledge.” – – Thomas Carlyle [1795-1881] Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era

Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

the utility of what is not

By | architectural theory, architecture, philosopher, poet | No Comments

“We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel; but it is on the space where there is nothing that the utility of the wheel depends.  We turn clay to make a vessel; but it is upon the space where there is nothing that the utility of the vessel depends.  We pierce doors and windows to make a house; and it is on these spaces where there is nothing that the utility of the house depends.  Therefore, just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the utility of what is not.” – – Lao Tse [believed to be a contemporary of Confucius during 5th century BC] ancient Chinese philosopher and poet

Laozi, depicted as Daode Tianzun

Laozi, depicted as Daode Tianzun

on focus

By | architect, architectural theory, architecture, author, educator, quotes on art and architecture | No Comments

“If architects focus only on compositional methods as means without ends, the ends will certainly be determined by forces outside of architecture – by those economic forces we find so prominent within the profession today, masquerading as ‘fashion’ and ‘style.” – –  Robert McCarter [b. about 1953] American architect, author and educator

Robert McCarter

Robert McCarter

Do not disturb my circles!

By | astronomer, engineer, inventor, mathematician, physicist | No Comments

“Noli turbare circulos meos,” (Do not disturb my circles.) – – Purportedly the last words of Archimedes of Syracuse [c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC] Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer  before being killed at 75 by a Roman soldier in the siege on Syracuse during the Second Punic War 218-201 BC

Archimedes painted by Domenico Fetti in 1620

Archimedes of Syracuse painted by Domenico Fetti in 1620

the crow

By | architect, architectural criticism, architectural theory, writer | No Comments

“Le Corbusier was the sort of relentlessly rational intellectual that only France loves wholeheartedly, the logician who flies higher and higher in ever-decreasing circles until, with one last, utterly inevitable induction, he disappears up his own fundamental aperture and emerges in the fourth dimension as a needle-thin umber bird.” – -Tom Wolfe [b. 1931] American author and journalist

Thomas Kennerly Wolfe, Jr.

Thomas Kennerly Wolfe, Jr.