Ornamentation Quotes

• A building without ornamentation is like a heaven without stars.

  George Sandys

  Stars, Heaven, Building

  4 Copy quote

• Ornamentation is the principal part of architecture, considered as a subject of fine art.

  John Ruskin

  Art, Architecture, Fine

  John Ruskin (2015). “Lectures on Architecture and Painting”, p.82, John Ruskin

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• A design may be called organic when there is an harmonious organization of the parts within the whole, according to structure, material, and purpose. Within this definition there can be no vain ornamentation or superfluity, but the part of beauty is nonetheless great-in ideal choice of material, in visual refinement, and in the rational elegance of things intended for use.

  Eliot Noyes

  Organization, Choices, Design

  10 Copy quote

• Lack of ornamentation is a sign of spiritual strength.

  Adolf Loos

  Spiritual, Spiritual Strength

  39 Copy quote

• Nature is the inspiration for all ornamentation

  Frank Lloyd Wright

  Inspiration

  109 Copy quote

• Down below the broad, roaring waves of the sea break against the deep foundation of the rock. But high above the mountain, the sea, and the peaks of rock the eternal ornamentation blooms silently from the dark depths of the universe.

  Rudolf Otto

  Dark, Rocks, Sea

  Rudolf Otto (1996). “Autobiographical and Social Essays”, p.73, Walter de Gruyter

  45 Copy quote

  Show source

• If one has a good disposition, what other virtue is needed? If a man has fame, what is the value of other ornamentation?

  Chanakya

  Men, Virtue, Fame

  9 Copy quote

• The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity ... the ability to express the utmost with the minimum. It is the halfway cultivation that leads to ornamentation.

  Bruce Lee

  Running, Simplicity, Height

  9 Copy quote

• I think there is a profound and enduring beauty in simplicity; in clarity, in efficiency. True simplicity is derived from so much more than just the absence of clutter and ornamentation. It's about bringing order to complexity.

  Jonathan Ive

  Philosophical, Thinking, Order

  iOS 7 product video, shown at WWDC, 2013.

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• Comparing man and woman on the whole, one may say: woman would not possess a genius for ornamentation if she did not also possessan instinct for the secondary role.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Men, Roles, Genius

  6 Copy quote

• This, milord, is my family's axe. We have owned it for almost nine hundred years, see. Of course, sometimes it needed a new blade. And sometimes it has required a new handle, new designs on the metalwork, a little refreshing of the ornamentation . . . but is this not the nine hundred-year-old axe of my family? And because it has changed gently over time, it is still a pretty good axe, y'know. Pretty good.

  Terry Pratchett

  Years, Design, Littles

  4 Copy quote

• But the helmet had gold decoration, and the bespoke armorers had made a new gleaming breastplate with useless gold ornamentation on it. Sam Vimes felt like a class traitor every time he wore it. He hated being thought of as one of those people that wore stupid ornamental armor. It was gilt by association.

  Terry Pratchett

  Stupid, Class, People

  4 Copy quote

• When I behold the passion for ornamentation, and the corresponding power, I feel as if women had so far shown what they are bad for, rather than what they are good for.

  Julia Ward Howe

  Passion, Feels, Ifs

  5 Copy quote

• Science offends the modesty of all real women. It makes them feel as though it were an attempt to peek under their skin--or, worseyet, under their dress and ornamentation!

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Real, Women, Science

  6 Copy quote

• The work resembles a breech delivery-one which is expressed in rhythmic lurches, stabs of phrase and vocal ornamentation designed to express agitation rather than decorative grace.

  Wendell Phillips

  Grace, Agitation, Phrases

  11 Copy quote

• Branches or types are characterized by the plan of their structure,
  Classes, by the manner in which that plan is executed, as far as ways and means are concerned,
  Orders, by the degrees of complication of that structure,
  Families, by their form, as far as determined by structure,
  Genera, by the details of the execution in special parts, and
  Species, by the relations of individuals to one another and to the world in which they live, as well as by the proportions of their parts, their ornamentation, etc.

  Louis Agassiz

  Mean, Order, Class

  Louis Agassiz (1857). “Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America: pt. I. Essay on classification. pt. II. North American Testudinata. 1857”, p.170

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Artistic tricks divert from the effect that an artist endeavors to produce, and even excellent elements such as bullets, arrows, brackets, ornate initials, are at best superficial ornamentation unless logically employed.

  Paul Rand

  Artist, Arrows, Elements

  16 Copy quote

• What a person is begins to betray itself when his talent weakens--when he stops showing what he can do. Talent, too, is ornamentation, and ornamentation, too, is a hiding place.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Talent, Hiding, Betray

  5 Copy quote

• We want to create the purely organic building, boldly emanating its inner laws, free of untruths or ornamentation.

  Walter Gropius

  Law, Want, Building

  115 Copy quote

• I wonder, only in passing, whether the indelible ornamentation that man inscribes upon his own epidermis does not respond to a nostalgia for the universal internally generated coloring of corrollas, furs, shells, carapaces and wings. For man it has been necessary to create both works and tools outside of himself. But it may be that he retains an obscure nostalgia to create them on his own body, to make them a part of it rather than projecting them outwards onto an independent surface, where he is free to retouch them as he sees fit, which is precisely what painting and art are.

  Roger Caillois

  Art, Independent, Men

  45 Copy quote

• According to Chekhov," Tamaru said, rising from his chair, "once a gun appears in a story, it has to be fired." "Meaning what?" "Meaning, don't bring unnecessary props into a story. If a pistol appears, it has to be fired at some point. Chekhov liked to write stories that did away with all useless ornamentation.

  Haruki Murakami

  Writing, Gun, Stories

  4 Copy quote