56 Quotes by Louis Kahn

Architecture appears for the first time when the sunlight hits a wall. The sunlight did not know what it was before it hit a wall.

Even a brick wants to be something.

I sense a Threshold: Light to Silence, Silence to Light – an ambiance of inspiration, in which the desire to be, to express, crosses with the possible Light to Silence, Silence to Light crosses in the sanctuary of art.

How precious a book is in light of the offering, in the light of the one who has the privilege of this offering. The library tells you of this offering.

You say to a brick, ‘What do you want, brick?’ And brick says to you, ‘I like an arch.’ And you say to brick, ‘Look, I want one, too, but arches are expensive and I can use a concrete lintel.’ And then you say: ‘What do you think of that, brick?’ Brick says: ‘I like an arch.’

The creation of art is not the fulfillment of a need but the creation of a need. The world never needed Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony until he created it. Now we could not live without it.

The crocodile must want to be a crocodile for reasons of the crocodile.

If people want to see Beaux-Arts, it’s fine with me. I’m interested in good architecture as anybody else.

The street is a room by agreement.