Echoes

These circumstances, trivial as they may seem, have their importance; since without them we could never have come to any certainty.

Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.

All great events hang by a hair. The man of ability takes advantage of everything and neglects nothing that can give him a chance of success; whilst the less able man sometimes loses everything by neglecting a single one of those chances.

Good design is thorough down to the last detail. Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.

Prefer the specific to the general, the definite to the vague, the concrete to the abstract.

Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins.

The best preparation for tomorrow is to do today's work superbly well.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Do the duty which lies nearest thee, which thou knowest to be a duty! Thy second duty will already have become clearer.

The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

Men do not stumble over mountains, but over molehills

Don't do anything that someone else can do. Don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.

Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.

It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

He who is everywhere is nowhere.

It is not among extraordinary and fantastic things that excellence is to be found, of whatever kind it may be. We rise to attain it and become removed from it: it is oftenest necessary to stoop for it.

Thou oughtest in every deed and thought so to order thyself, as if thou wert to die this day.

...if you are nothing but profit-conscious, you cannot see the opportunities ahead.

Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.

The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark.

It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away.