When art becomes merely shock value, our sense of humanity is slowly degraded.

Art once made a cult of beauty. Now we have a cult of ugliness instead. This has made art into an elaborate joke, one which by now has ceased to be funny.

There is a deep human need for beauty and if you ignore that need in architecture your buildings will not last

Modernism in architecture went hand in hand with socialist and fascist projects to rid old Europe of its hierarchical past

A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is ‘merely relative,’ is asking you not to believe him. So don’t.

Through the pursuit of beauty we shape the world as a home, and in doing so we both amplify our joys and find consolation for our sorrows.

The culture of a civilization is the art and literature through which it rises to consciousness of itself and defines its vision of the world.

Art and music shine a light of meaning on ordinary life, and through them we are able to confront the things that trouble us and to find consolation and peace in their presence.

It is not enough to be nice; you have to be good. We are attracted by nice people; but only on the assumption that their niceness is a sign of goodness.

In argument about moral problems, relativism is the first refuge of the scoundrel.

There are no chords in modernist architecture, only lines - lines that may come to an end, but that achieve no closure

They are my baby Keelans!

Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead, that is where your future lies.

Luck take a second look at what appears to be someone's good luck. You'll find not luck but preparation, planning, and success-producing thinking.

Catastrophe and desire are linked in our lives as the moon is linked to that reflected light from the sun which enables the eye to see it.

I think that Election Day is the closest thing we have to a civic sacrament, when people meet their neighbors at the firehouse or the school and they vote at the same time.

Death is the opening of a more subtle life. In the flower, it sets free the perfume; in the chrysalis, the butterfly; in man, the soul.

No [other rappers are on my level], none of them. Here, let me put it like this in the sky, there are a million stars, but when the sun appears, you see none of them. I am the sun.

Greed is normally balanced by fear.

Your life, your soul, your world. They cannot kill it. Look at me, I’ve died but I opened my eyes again.

The way humans hunt for parking and the way animals hunt for food are not as different as you might think.