architect quotes

I am really persuaded that if we were to inquire of all the Cities which†have fallen by Siege into the Power of new Masters, who it was that subjected and overcame them, they would tell you, the Architect; and that they were strong enough to have despised the armed Enemy, but not to withstand the Shocks of the Engines, the Violence of the Machines and the Force of other Instruments of War with whichthe Architect, distressed, demolished and ruinated them.On the contrary, they would inform you that their greatest Defense lay in the Art and Assistance of the Architect.

- Leon Battista Alberti
^2  Architecttura (translated by James Leoni,1755).

Imaginethepositionofthemodernarchitect.Picturethe young fellow to be put into a 'profession' because trade is considered beneath him (another antiquarian prejudice).The young fellow hasn't exactly got a legal mind, like father; he's not much good at essays, so he can't write; he faints at the sight of blood so can't be a doctor. What isthere for him to do? Architecture of course.

- SirJohn Betjeman
  First and Last Loves.

Faber est suae quisque fortunae. Each man is the architect of his own fate.

- Appius Claudius Caecus
Quoted in Sallust  Ad Caesarem Senem de Re Publica Oratio, ch.1, section 2.

If I was not optimistic, I would not be an architect.

-J(acobus) J(ohannes) P(ieter) Oud
Quoted in the NewYork Times, 4 Dec1994.

'Form follows profit' is the aesthetic principle of our times. Thus, design skill is measured today by the architect's ability to build the largest possible enclosure for the smallest investment in the quickest time.

- Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers
  22nd annualWalter Neurath lecture. Collected in Architecture: a ModernView.

   No person who is not a great sculptor or painter can be an architect. If he is not a sculptor or painter, he can only be a builder.

-John Ruskin
  Lectures on Architecture and Painting.

The dialogue between client and architect is about as intimate as any conversation you can have because, when you're talking about building a house, you're talking about dreams.

- Rod Sterling
  'TheTrend-SettingTraditionalism of Architecture', in the NewYorkTimes,13 Jan.

Some men go through life absolutely miserable because, despite the most enormous achievements, they just didn't do one thinglike the architect who didn't build St Paul's. I didn't quite build St Paul's, but I stood on more mountain tops than possibly I deserved.

- Lord (George Edward) Peter Thorneycroft
  In the SundayTelegraph,11 Feb.

The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines.

- Frank Lloyd Wright
  In the NewYorkTimes, 4 Oct.