A civilization is built on what is required of men, not on that which is provided for them.

• The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.
• A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
• I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind.
• Charity never humiliated him who profited from it, nor ever bound him by the chains of gratitude, since it was not to him but to God that the gift was made.
• The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.
• True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.
• A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.
• A civilization is a heritage of beliefs, customs, and knowledge slowly accumulated in the course of centuries, elements difficult at times to justify by logic, but justifying themselves as paths when they lead somewhere, since they open up for man his inner distance.
• Life has meaning only if one barters it day by day for something other than itself.
• Tell me who admires and loves you, and I will tell you who you are.