Truth is a torch, but a terrific one; therefore we all try to reach it with closed eyes, lest we should be scorched.

Architecture is crystallized music.

Every great idea exerts, on first appearing, a tyrannical influence: Hence, the advantages it brings are turned all too soon into disadvantages.

The universal subjugator, the commonplace.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.

Nature! We live in her midst and know her not. She is incessantly speaking to us, but betrays not her secret. We constantly act upon her, and yet have no power over her. Variant: NATURE! We are surrounded and embraced by her: powerless to separate ourselves from her, and powerless to penetrate beyond her.