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

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

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.

In sculpture did ever anybody call the Apollo a fancy piece? Or
say of the Laocoon how it might read more

In sculpture did ever anybody call the Apollo a fancy piece? Or
say of the Laocoon how it might be made difference? A
masterpiece of art has in the mind a fixed place in the chain of
being, as much as a plant or a crystal.

Old houses mended,
Cost little less than new, before they're ended.

Old houses mended,
Cost little less than new, before they're ended.

The hand that rounded Peter's dome
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome,
Wrought in a sad read more

The hand that rounded Peter's dome
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome,
Wrought in a sad sincerity;
Himself from God he could not free;
He builded better than he knew;
The conscious stone to beauty grew.

The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor's hand can only break read more

The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor's hand can only break the spell To free the figures slumbering in the stone

The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.

The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.

And the cold marble leapt to life a God.

And the cold marble leapt to life a God.

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

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