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The true architectural art, that art toward which I would lead you, rests, not upon scholarship but upon human powers; and, therefore, it is to be tested, not by the fruits of scholarship, but by the touch-stone of humanity.

— Louis Sullivan Kindergarten Chats (1918)

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Architecture

More quotes by Louis Sullivan

Verily, there needs a gardener, and many gardens.

Kindergarten Chats (1918)

What are books but folly, and what is an education but an arrant hypocrisy, and what is art but a curse when they touch not the heart and impel it not to action?

Kindergarten Chats (1918)

We must now heed the imperative voice of emotion.

The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered (1896)

Truly we are face to face with great things.

Education (1902)

To teach is to touch the heart and impel it to action.

All Louis Sullivan quotes →

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The sight of such a monument is like continual and stationary music, which one hears for one's good as one approaches it.

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Rich windows that exclude the light,
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Thomas Gray

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Louis Sullivan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.