Architecture Quotes

When I lately stood with a friend before [the cathedral of]
Amiens, . . . he asked me how more

When I lately stood with a friend before [the cathedral of]
Amiens, . . . he asked me how it happens that we can no longer
build such piles? I replied: "Dear Alphonse, men in those days
had convictions (Ueberzeugungen), we moderns have opinions
(Meinungen) and it requires something more than an opinion to
build a Gothic cathedral.

Architecture is the art of how to waste space.

Architecture is the art of how to waste space.

Grandeur . . . consists in form, and not in size: and to the eye
of the philosopher, the more

Grandeur . . . consists in form, and not in size: and to the eye
of the philosopher, the curve drawn on a paper two inches long,
is just as magnificent, just as symbolic of divine mysteries and
melodies, as when embodied in the span of some cathedral roof.

In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
more

In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the gods see everywhere.

The architect
Built his great heart into these sculptured stones,
And with him toiled his children, and more

The architect
Built his great heart into these sculptured stones,
And with him toiled his children, and their lives
Were builded, with his own, into the walls,
As offerings unto God.

Ah, to build, to build!
That is the noblest of all the arts.

Ah, to build, to build!
That is the noblest of all the arts.

There will never be great architects or great architecture
without great patrons.

There will never be great architects or great architecture
without great patrons.

Anon, out of the earth a fabric huge
Rose, like an exhalation.

Anon, out of the earth a fabric huge
Rose, like an exhalation.

Nor did there want
Cornice or frieze with bossy sculpture graven.

Nor did there want
Cornice or frieze with bossy sculpture graven.

The hasty multitude
Admiring enter'd, and the work some praise,
And some the architect: his hand was more

The hasty multitude
Admiring enter'd, and the work some praise,
And some the architect: his hand was known
In heaven by many a tower'd structure high,
Where scepter'd angels held their residence,
And sat as princes.