I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.
An idea is salvation by imagination
A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.
Early in my career...I had to choose between an honest arrogance and a hypercritical humility... I deliberately choose an honest arrogance, and I've never been sorry.
I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.
Nature is my manifestation of God. I go to nature every day for inspiration in the day's work.
Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.
A professional is one who does his best work when he feels the least like working.
The truth is more important than the facts.
Youth is not an age thing. It's a quality. Once you've had it, you never lose it.
Love is the virtue of the Heart, Sincerity is the virtue of the Mind, Decision is the virtue of the Will, Courage is the virtue of the Spirit.
There is nothing more uncommon than common sense.
The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.
Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.
Television is chewing gum for the eyes.
I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.
If it sells, it's art.
Less is more only when more is too much.
Many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions.
Youth is a circumstance you can't do anything about. The trick is to grow up without getting old.
You have to go wholeheartedly into anything in order to achieve anything worth having.
Freedom lies within.
Imitation is always insult--not flattery.
Give me the luxuries of life and I will gladly do without the necessities.
Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change.
The heart is the chief feature of a functioning mind.
The measure of a man's culture is the measure of his appreciation. We are ourselves what we appreciate and no more.
Philip Johnson is a highbrow. A highbrow is a man educated beyond his capacity. His house is a box of glass — not shelter. The meaning of the word shelter includes privacy.
Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose the former and have seen no reason to change.
Eventually, I think Chicago will be the most beautiful great city left in the world.
To me, young has no meaning. It’s something you can do nothing about, nothing at all. But youth is a quality. And if you have it, you never lose it.
The best thing to do is go as far out as you can get... what you regard as 'too far'--and when others follow, as they will, move on.
Man is a phase of nature, and only as he is related to nature does he matter, does he have any account whatever above the dust.
The longer that I live the more beautiful life becomes.
An architect's most useful tools are an eraser at the drafting board and a wrecking ball at the site.
Space is the breath of art.
Life is truth...
Art for art's sake is a philosophy of the well-fed.
The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.
A man is a fool if he drinks before he reaches the age of 50, and a fool if he doesn't afterward.
Noble life demands a noble architecture for noble uses of noble men. Lack of culture means what it has always meant: ignoble civilization and therefore imminent downfall.
The measure of its nobility and its continuity is its depth of feeling and its sincerity. And if it has that quality, it stands. "Toward a New architecture" July 14, 1957
...there is no true understanding of any art without some knowledge of its philosophy. Only then does its meaning come clear.
The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines — so they should go as far as possible from home to build their first buildings.
