Quotes by Philip Johnson

About Philip Johnson:

Philip Cortelyou Johnson is especially known for his postmodern work since the 1980s.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Glibness will get your anywhere.

Philip Johnson

Processionalism is primary - how you get from one place to another, the relationships and effects of spaces as you move about in them. That's worked out awfully well in the State Theater. I'm a 'straight-in' man myself; I'm too nervous, I like to kno...

Philip Johnson

Anybody can build a building, putting some doors into it, but how many times have you been in a building that moves you to tears the way Beethoven's 'Eighth' does?

Philip Johnson

Purpose is not necessary to make a building beautiful.

Philip Johnson

There's no worse feeling than seeing my buildings and realizing the mistakes.

Philip Johnson

I always think of buildings in their settings, but so do other architects.

Philip Johnson

I got everything from someone. Nobody can be original.

Philip Johnson

I like the thought that what we are to do on this earth is embellish it for its greater beauty, so that oncoming generations can look back to the shapes we leave here and get the same thrill that I get in looking back at theirs - at the Parthenon, at...

Philip Johnson

I like to be buttoned onto tradition. The thing is to improve it, twist it and mold it; to make something new of it; not to deny it. The riches of history can be plucked at any point.

Philip Johnson

You cannot not know history.

Philip Johnson

In my own work, I'd say I'm a classicist, but I look everywhere for my solutions. I don't study the toilet-living habits of my clients, although that's a popular approach. First, I think of every building in history that has been similar in purpose. ...

Philip Johnson

Faith? Haven't any. I'm not a nihilist or a relativist. I don't believe in anything but change. I'm a Heraclitean - you can't step in the same river twice.

Philip Johnson

I used to think that each phase of life was the end. But now that my view on life is more or less fixed, I believe that change is a great thing. In fact, it's the only real absolute in the world.

Philip Johnson

You're going to change the world? Well, go ahead and try. You'll give it up at a certain point and change yourself instead.

Philip Johnson

All architects want to live beyond their deaths.

Philip Johnson

I wish someone would ask me to design a cathedral.

Philip Johnson

I haven't any wisdom - just a child like everybody else. I'm not as great as Frank Lloyd Wright.

Philip Johnson

I guess I can't be a great architect. Great architects have a recognizable style. But if every building I did were the same, it would be pretty boring.

Philip Johnson

If architects weren't arrogant, they wouldn't be architects. I don't know a modest good architect.

Philip Johnson

I call myself a traditionalist, although I have fought against tradition all my life.

Philip Johnson

Don't build a glass house if you're worried about saving money on heating.

Philip Johnson

Author Bio

  • NamePhilip Johnson
  • DescriptionAmerican architect (1906–2005)
  • AliasesPhilip Cortelyou Johnson
  • BornJuly 8, 1906
  • DiedJanuary 25, 2005
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionArchitect
  • WorksCrystal Cathedral; Philip-Johnson-Haus
  • AwardsPritzker Architecture Prize; AIA Gold Medal