Louis Sullivan quotes - page 2

If with open mind one reads and observes industriously and long; if in so doing one covers a wide field and so covering reflects in terms of realism, he is likely, soon or late, to be brought to a sudden consciousness that Man is an unknown quantity and his existence unsuspected. (Louis Sullivan)
The feudal concept of self-preservation is poisoned at the core by the virulent assumption of master and man, of potentate and slave, of external and internal suppression of the life urge of the only one - of its faith in human sacrifice as a means of salvation. View quote
Louis Sullivan
No complete architecture has yet appeared in the history of the world because men, in this form of art alone, have obstinately sought to express themselves solely in terms either of the head or of the heart. View quote
Louis Sullivan
It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things superhuman, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law. View quote
Louis Sullivan
All things in nature have a shape, that is to say, a form, an outward semblance, that tells us what they are, that distinguishes them from ourselves and from each other. View quote
Louis Sullivan
The human mind in all countries having gone to the uttermost limit of its own capacity, flushed with its conquests, haughty after its self-assertion upon emerging from the prior dark age, is now nearing a new phase, a phase inherent in the nature and destiny of things. View quote
Louis Sullivan
The French have a saying: "Time will not consecrate that in which she has been ignored." Bear this admonition ever in mind for it is deeply true. And so, while I say we will neither hasten nor delay, let us not delay. All of which is summed up in the proverbs : :Haste makes waste. Delays are dangerous. He who hesitates is lost. Be bold yet prudent. View quote
Louis Sullivan
The man who designs in this spirit and with the sense of responsibility to the generation he lives in must be no coward, no denier, no bookworm, no dilettante. He must live of his life and for his life in the fullest, most consummate sense. View quote
Louis Sullivan
The greatest man of action is he who is the greatest, and a life-long, dreamer. View quote
Louis Sullivan
A democracy should not let its dreamers perish. They are its life, its guaranty against decay. View quote
Louis Sullivan
Let us then be on our way; for our sun is climbing ever higher. Let us be adoing; lest it set before we know the glory and the import of its light, and we sink again into the twilight and the gloom from which we have come. (Louis Sullivan)
I am of those who believe that gentleness is a greater, surer power than force, and that sympathy is a safer power by far than is intellect. View quote
Louis Sullivan
He who knows naught of dreaming can, likewise, never attain the heights of power and possibility in persuading the mind to act. He who dreams not creates not. View quote
Louis Sullivan
Unceasingly the essence of things is taking shape in the matter of things, and this unspeakable process we call birth and growth. View quote
Louis Sullivan
Verily, there needs a gardener, and many gardens. View quote
Louis Sullivan
Truly we are face to face with great things. View quote
Louis Sullivan
After the long night, and longer twilight, we envisage a dawn-era: an era in which the minor law of tradition shall yield to the greater law of creation, in which the spirit of repression shall fail to repress. Man at last is become emancipated, and now is free to think, to feel, to act free to move toward the goal of the race. View quote
Louis Sullivan
These two happenings seem jointed and interdependent, blended into one like a bubble and its iridescence, and they seem borne along upon a slowly moving air. This air is wonderful past all understanding. View quote
Louis Sullivan
Taste is one of the weaker words in our language. It means a little less than something, a little more than nothing; certainly it conveys no suggestion of potency. It savors of accomplishment, in the fashionable sense, not of power to accomplish in the creative sense. View quote
Louis Sullivan
We must now heed the imperative voice of emotion. View quote
Louis Sullivan
Thus would I concentrate the powers of will. (Louis Sullivan)
Whether it be the sweeping eagle in his flight, or the open apple-blossom, the toiling work-horse, the blithe swan, the branching oak, the winding stream at its base, the drifting clouds, over all the coursing sun, form ever follows function, and this is the law. View quote
Louis Sullivan
And so shall your garden grow; from the rich soil of the humanities it will rise up and unfold in beauty in the pure air of the spirit. View quote
Louis Sullivan
Is it not Canon Hole who says: "He who would have beautiful roses in his garden, must have beautiful roses in his heart: he must love them well and always?" View quote
Louis Sullivan
The building's identity resided in the ornament. View quote
Louis Sullivan