In order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work.

There is no climate, no place, and scarcely an hour, in which nature does not exhibit color which no mortal effort can imitate or approach. For all our artificial pigments are, even when seen under the same circumstances, dead and lightless beside her living color; nature exhibits her hues under an intensity of sunlight which trebles their brilliancy.

Science studies the relations of things to each other: but art studies only their relations to man.

In all things that live there are certain irregularities, and deficiencies which are not only signs of life, but sources of beauty. No human face is exactly the same in its lines on each side, no leaf perfect in its lobes, no branch in its symmetry.

Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts - the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.

A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort.

An architect should live as little in cities as a painter. Send him to our hills, and let him study there what nature understands by a buttress, and what by a dome.