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

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

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

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down
the middle wall of partition read more

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down
the middle wall of partition between us; . . .

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.

No hammers fell, no ponderous axes rung,
Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung.
Majestic silence.

No hammers fell, no ponderous axes rung,
Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung.
Majestic silence.

Rich windows that exclude the light,
And passages that lead to nothing.

Rich windows that exclude the light,
And passages that lead to nothing.

Silently as a dream the fabric rose;
No sound of hammer or of saw was there.

Silently as a dream the fabric rose;
No sound of hammer or of saw was there.

Architecture is a social act and the material theater of human activity.

Architecture is a social act and the material theater of human activity.

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