Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Frank Lloyd Wright, he is regarded as one of the pioneers of modernist architecture. These Ludwig Mies van der Rohe quotes will motivate you in life.
Best Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Quotes
- “No design is possible until the materials with which you design are completely understood” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “Architecture is a language. When you are very good, you can be a poet” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “Less is more.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “God is in the details.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “We must remember that everything depends on how we use a material, not on the material itself… New materials are not necessarily superior. Each material is only what we make it.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
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“It is better to be good than to be original.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “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.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “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.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
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“I don’t want to be interesting. I want to be good.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “Architecture has the power to create order out of unholy confusion.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “If teaching has any purpose, it is to implant true insight and responsibility. Education must lead us from irresponsible opinion to true responsible judgment. It must lead us from chance and arbitrariness to rational clarity and intellectual order.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “First you have to learn to do something, then you can go out and do it.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
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“Architecture is the real battleground of the spirit.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “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.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “Architecture is the will of the age conceived in spatial terms.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “But what if we are dealing with fools?” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “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.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
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“God dwells in the details.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “We must have order, allocating to each thing its proper place and giving to each thing is due according to its nature.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “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.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “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.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “The individual is losing significance; his destiny is no longer what interests us.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
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“Each material is only what we make it.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “[In art], less is more.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “Architecture begins when you place two bricks carefully together.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “Means must be subsidiary to ends and to our desire for dignity and value.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “Architecture wrote the history of the epochs and gave them their names.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “Let us guide our students over the road of discipline from materials, through function, to creative work.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
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“Never talk to a client about architecture. Talk to him about his children.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “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 ax, expression in every bite of the chisel.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- “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.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
