Skip to content

Ernest Flagg Quotes

1857–1947 United States

Ernest Flagg (February 6, 1857 – April 10, 1947) was a noted American architect in the Beaux-Arts style. He was also an advocate for urban reform and social responsibility in architecture.

United States
Architects

Random Ernest Flagg quote

40 quotes

A master in art need not go into the highways and byways for affects; he knows the straight course and follows it.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

Simplicity and Dignity are so nearly related that they may be considered together.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

The system of building, described in this work, is intended for repetition.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

These houses are intended to have stone walls.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

There have always seemed to the writer sound reasons for using the module system in architectural design.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

The best art, and the only art which will ever lead to great results, must have for its basis the interpretation of beauty in nature.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

The object of this work is to improve the design and construction of small houses while reducing their cost.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

Reason requires all things to have a use and be appropriate and fitted to the purpose for which they are used.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

While it is not hard to suggest improvements on common methods of design and construction, it is very hard to introduce them.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

One of the best ways to economize in building is to economize on ugliness. ...Nothing can be greater service in avoiding ugliness than a knowledge of the principles of design.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

1st. Saving of time, trouble, and money in the preparation of plans by the module system, and the standardization of parts and methods.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

Greek art was extremely simple and direct; both in design and construction the Greek mind abhorred complicaton.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

Certain combinations of dimensions produce harmonious results, but since the time of the ancient Greeks no system of design, consistently base on that knowledge, has been formulated.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

Disguise and complication are hindrances, both to good construction and good design, and as complication and disguise are expensive and wasteful... the interests of good art and true economy run on parallel lines.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

Refinement. While the possession of this quality is due, in the first instance, to education, it is also largely a matter of temperament.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

Beauty alone is an excellent reason for many things, but when a design is in direct conflict with common sense it cannot be a work of art.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

Beauty is largely dependent on fitness, and fitting methods are usually the most convenient and economical; therein, indeed, to a great extent, lies their very fitness.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

Simplicity is the mark of genius.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

The qualities called personal... and the ability to impart them, in greater or less degree, is the gage of genius in art.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

Instead of the dormers, skylights... are easier to make and operate, need no double sash, cost less, and some may prefer their appearance.

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Ernest Flagg (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.