Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Quotes

It is better to be good than to be original.

Architecture is a language. When you are very good, you can be a poet

The individual is losing significance; his destiny is no longer what interests us.

Means must be subsidiary to ends and to our desire for dignity and value.

Never talk to a client about architecture. Talk to him about his children. That is simply good politics. He will not understand what you have to say about architecture most of the time. An architect of ability should be able to tell a client what he wants. Most of the time a client never knows what he wants.

Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins.

Each material is only what we make it.

Simply by not owning three medium-sized castles in Tuscany I have saved enough money in the last forty years on insurance premiums alone to buy a medium-sized castle in Tuscany.

God is in the details.

First you have to learn to do something, then you can go out and do it.

I don't want to be interesting. I want to be good.

Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space.

But what if we are dealing with fools?

We must be as familiar with the functions of our building as with our materials. We must learn what a building can be, what it should be, and also what it must not be.

The long path from material through function to creative work has only one goal: to create order out of the desperate confusion of our time.

Never talk to a client about architecture. Talk to him about his children.

Let us guide our students over the road of discipline from materials, through function, to creative work. Let us lead them into the healthy world of primitive building methods, where there was meaning in every stroke of an axe, expression in every bite of chisel.

True education is concerned not only with practical goals but also with values. Our aims assure us of our material life, our values make possible our spiritual life.

Architecture begins when you place two bricks carefully together.

A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous.

Less is more.

Where can we find greater structural clarity than in the wooden buildings of the old. Where else can we find such unity of material, construction and form? Here the wisdom of whole generations is stored. What feelings for material and what power of expression there is in these buildings! What warmth and beauty they have! They seem to be echoes of old songs.

And just as we acquaint ourselves with materials, just as we must understand functions, so we must become familiar with the psychological and spiritual factors of our day. No cultural activity is possible otherwise; for we are dependent on the spirit of our time.

If teaching has any purpose, it is to implant true insight and responsibility. Education must lead us from irresponsible opinion to true responsible judgement. It must lead us from chance and arbitrariness to rational clarity and intellectual order.

God dwells in the details.

No design is possible until the materials with which you design are completely understood

Architecture has the power to create order out of unholy confusion.

[In art], less is more.