Computers are to design as microwaves are to cooking.
—Milton Glaser
I’m interested in architecture, but it’s no good thing being an architect if you are interested in architecture. It’s like being a butcher if you are interested in animals.
—Ed Steed
Beauty is temporary, ugliness lasts forever.
—Marina Abramović
Lack of focus is why we have a lack of greatness.
—Jerry Seinfeld (b. 1954) via Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, S6E1
It’s not the easiest thing to try and put a smile on a face. But it’s always worth it.
—Jerome Allen Seinfeld, a.k.a., Jerry Seinfeld (b. 1954) via Some website
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
—Eric Arthur Blair, a.k.a., George Orwell (1903 – 1950) via Nineteen Eighty-Four
Please, could you expel, or, at least, restrain, the comma-maniac, on your editorial staff?
—Mary Norris, a.k.a., The Comma Queen (1952– ) via The nit-picking glory of the New Yorker’s Comma Queen
Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
The Americans are very impressionable people; they see what they want to see. I have a lot of respect for them. I am not upset at all that I ended up on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them see him.
—Yevgeny Prigozhin, a.k.a., Putin’s chef (b. 1961) via The New York Times
Beauty conforms to the demands of the spirit.
Mark Rothko (1903–1970) via Brainpickings
I often can’t tell if people are at peace or just being dull.
—Heinrich Karl Bukowski, a.k.a. Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) via Half-Truth Zine Issue 16 (1993) found at Bukowskiforum.com
Talent is like a marksman who hits a target which others cannot reach; genius is like a marksman who hits a target…others cannot even see.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) via Google Books
Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894) via Google Books
Excellence has no sex
—Eva Hesse (1936—1970)
Most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects but by the people
—Christopher Wolfgang Alexander (1936– ) via “A Pattern Language”
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944) via GoodReads
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