Philip Johnson

The first complete sentence out of my mouth was probably that line about consistency being the hobgoblin of small minds.

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Concrete you can mold, you can press it into - after all, you haven't any straight lines in your body. Why should we have straight lines in our architecture? You'd be surprised when you go into a room that has no straight line - how marvelous it is that you can feel the walls talking back to you, as it were.

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I like the thought that what we are to do on this earth is embellish it for its greater beauty, so that oncoming generations can look back to the shapes we leave here and get the same thrill that I get in looking back at theirs - at the Parthenon, at Chartres Cathedral.

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I like to be buttoned onto tradition. The thing is to improve it, twist it and mold it; to make something new of it; not to deny it. The riches of history can be plucked at any point.

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Houston is undoubtedly my showcase city. I saved all my best buildings for Houston.

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I hate vacations. If you can build buildings, why sit on the beach?

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I haven't any wisdom - just a child like everybody else. I'm not as great as Frank Lloyd Wright.

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Quotes by Philip Johnson