Architecture ... the adaptation of form to resist force.

All men who have sense and feeling are being continually helped; they are taught by every person they meet, and enriched by everything that falls in their way. The greatest, is he who has been oftenest aided. Originality is the observing eye.

... the weakest among us has a gift, however seemingly trivial, which is peculiar to him, and which, worthily used, will be a gift also to his race forever.

In every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong.

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.

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.

You cannot get anything out of nature or from God by gambling; only out of your neighbor.