Favorite Quotes

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Author Message Nathan Woods, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 348 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Friday, October 15, 2010 - 05:04 pm:    I have a short collection of quotes that tend to apply to my role as a construction administrator. I thought I'd share them here, and maybe pick up a few new ones from you all: "The two most important tools an architect has are the eraser in the drawing room and the sledge hammer on the construction site.” —Frank Lloyd Wright "A good plan executed now is better than the perfect plan next week." —General George S. Patton "In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing is the wrong thing; and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” —Theodore Roosevelt “The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary.” —Thomas A. Edison "We write frankly and fearlessly but then we "modify" before we print.” —Mark Twain Life on the Mississippi “The Navy is a master plan designed by geniuses for execution by idiots. If you’re not an idiot, but find yourself in the Navy, you can only operate well by pretending to be one. All the shortcuts and economies and commonsense changes that your native intelligence suggests to you are mistakes. Learn to squash them. Constantly ask yourself, ‘How would I do this if I were a fool?’ Throttle down your mind to a crawl. Then you’ll never go wrong.” —Herman Wouk The Cain Mutiny " Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities.” —Frank Lloyd Wright " I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.” —Frank Lloyd Wright " The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines - so they should go as far as possible from home to build their first buildings.” —Frank Lloyd Wright " My ideas have undergone a process of emergence by emergency. When they are needed badly enough, they are accepted.” —Buckminster Fuller " When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” —Buckminster Fuller Lynn Javoroski CSI CCS LEED® AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 1124 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Friday, October 15, 2010 - 05:08 pm:    "Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago." -Bernard Berenson Tom Heineman CCS (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Saturday, October 16, 2010 - 02:36 pm:    Harry Weese of Chicago was impressed by the gaggle of three-word mottoes that were so often taken to heart 6 and 7 decades ago: "Less is more", "Form follows function", "Machine for living", "Architecture = frozen music", and so forth. So he decided to add one: "Flat roofs leak". John Regener, AIA, CCS, CCCA, CSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: john_regener Post Number: 473 Registered: 04-2002 Posted on Sunday, October 17, 2010 - 04:14 pm:    Structural engineering maxims I learned in school: Gravity always works ... eventually. Every couple has its moment. Nathan Woods, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 349 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Sunday, October 17, 2010 - 06:59 pm:    Wow John, those made me groan, LOL. Good to hear from you! Doug Frank FCSI, CCS Senior Member Username: doug_frank_ccs Post Number: 271 Registered: 06-2002 Posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 - 09:14 am:    Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose the former and have seen no reason to change. -Frank Lloyd Wright Doug Frank FCSI, CCS, SCIP Affiliate FKP Architects, Inc. Houston, TX Nathan Woods, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 350 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 - 11:58 am:    Nice one Doug. Here are a few more: “If you don't have the time to do it right, what makes you think you'll have the time to do it twice?” —Every Architect Ever Born “Never draw more in the morning than you can erase in the afternoon” —Alan “We are not paying you for what you know, we are paying you for what you can figure out. Just try to be right more often than not.” —Jim Kelly, LPA "It costs a lot to build bad products" - Norman Augustine "I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” - Blaise Pascal “A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people." -Will Rogers “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” -Mark Twain “Professionalism is a personal attribute that one acquires; it cannot be inherited or bequeathed; Only they having made the acquisition, who put to use that knowledge, that skill, and with all their ability, and complete dedication of purpose, can truly be called a Professional.” - R.E Onstad “Mere precedent is a dangerous source of authority." -Andrew Jackson, 7th U.S. president ----------------------------------------- The Code of Hammurabi created ca. 1760 BC If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death. If it kill the son of the owner the son of that builder shall be put to death. If it kill a slave of the owner, then he shall pay slave for slave to the owner of the house. If it ruin goods, he shall make compensation for all that has been ruined, and inasmuch as he did not construct properly this house which he built and it fell, he shall re-erect the house from his own means. If a builder build a house for some one, even though he has not yet completed it; if then the walls seem toppling, the builder must make the walls solid from his own means. George A. Everding, AIA, CSI, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: geverding Post Number: 561 Registered: 11-2004 Posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 - 01:41 pm:    From one of my favorite Presidents all-time, and yours too, I am sure.... “It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't.” Martin Van Buren George A. Everding AIA CSI CCS CCCA Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies St. Louis, MO Tom Heineman CCS, SCIP (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 - 08:31 pm:    Having heard from A. Jackson, M. Van Buren and T. Roosevelt so far, let me go back to Jackson and add a principle of value to specifiers - while we are waiting for the M. Fillmore entry: "Anyone who can spell a word only one way certainly lacks imagination." Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI, CDT Senior Member Username: rliebing Post Number: 1220 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 01:36 pm:    "No building is safer than at that moment just prior to occupancy". "Faster, better, cheaper is an oxymoron". "Owners get to pick ONLY 2 of these three-- Cost; Scope; Quality" "Good design and bad detailing CANNOT co-exist" "There is need to know much [but not all] about every aspect of practice, even if you only work in one of them [think about your doctor]" John Regener, AIA, CCS, CCCA, CSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: john_regener Post Number: 474 Registered: 04-2002 Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 02:21 pm:    Quotes from comic Emo Phillips: "Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps." "When it comes to my health, I think of my body as a temple ... or at least a moderately well-managed Presbyterian youth center." Dave Metzger Senior Member Username: davemetzger Post Number: 375 Registered: 07-2001 Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 03:01 pm:    "Look at drawings in the field and specs in court" (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 03:09 pm:    Heard coming down the hall from the small room with 3 fixtures--- "Mom", we're outta of specs"!!!!!!!!!! Ellis C. Whitby, AIA, PE, CSI, LEED® AP Senior Member Username: ecwhitby Post Number: 71 Registered: 03-2003 Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 04:03 pm:    “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. No one is entitled to their own facts.” Attributed: Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003) “Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think.” Ambrose Bierce (1848-1914) “Make money and the whole nation will conspire to call you a gentleman.” G B Shaw (1856-1950) "Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative." H. G. Wells (1866-1946) “A nightmare is like bad food; it passes” “I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.“ George Best (1946-2005) “Pay no attention to what the critics say. Remember, a statue has never been set up in honor of a critic!” Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957) “We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse.” “Buildings don't exist to be pinned, like brooches, on the front of bigger structures to which they bear only the most distant of relationships.” Paul Goldberger (1950-) “There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday...around age 11.” Dave Berry (1947-) "The secret to success is knowing who to blame for your failures." Larry Kersten “Don’t bother looking for trouble. It’ll find you all on its own.” Eric Flint (1947-) “A man of eighty has outlived probably three new schools of painting, two of architecture and poetry and a hundred in dress.” Lord Byron (1788-1824) “Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence. “ Napoleon (1769-1821) “24 hours in a day; 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? You decide.” “I’m sorry that I allowed you to mislead yourself so badly.” John Regener, AIA, CCS, CCCA, CSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: john_regener Post Number: 475 Registered: 04-2002 Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 02:41 am:    "There comes a time in the affairs of men when we must take the bull by the tail and face the situation." W.C. Fields Lynn Javoroski CSI CCS LEED® AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 1126 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 09:44 am:    "We have met the enemy and he is us" - Pogo Andy (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 11:03 am:    Quote from an architect the other day at a jobsite meeting one of my colleagues attended - "I will tell you what, when, and where, but never how" Nathan Woods, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 351 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 12:17 pm:    Hmmm.. we don't tell them when, but we do tell them how (to some degree). Sheldon Wolfe Senior Member Username: sheldon_wolfe Post Number: 440 Registered: 01-2003 Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 02:04 pm:    How is the contractor's responsibility. As soon as you enter into that area, you assume risk you may not want. I assume that by when you mean the project schedule, rather than completion date. ;-) Nathan Woods, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 353 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 02:08 pm:    Every single connection detail is a How, but we are getting off topic here Sheldon Wolfe Senior Member Username: sheldon_wolfe Post Number: 442 Registered: 01-2003 Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 04:26 pm:    OK, back on track. "Design stops at Substantial Completion." (from a forensic design seminar at one of our conventions) The speaker may have been a bit optimistic... Anne Whitacre, FCSI CCS Senior Member Username: awhitacre Post Number: 1029 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 07:34 pm:    "Architecture is the piece that blows off in the wind. The rest is structure." (a colleague of mine said that about 25 years ago). Doug Frank FCSI, CCS Senior Member Username: doug_frank_ccs Post Number: 272 Registered: 06-2002 Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 08:10 am:    Here are a few of my favorite non architecture-related quotes: "The gods do not deduct from man's allotted span the hours spent in fishing." ~Babylonian Proverb "Men and fish are alike. They both get into trouble when they open their mouths." ~Author Unknown "It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence against a fish and loses has it coming." ~John Steinbeck "If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles." ~Doug Larson Doug Frank FCSI, CCS, SCIP Affiliate FKP Architects, Inc. Houston, TX Tom Heineman CCS, SCIP (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 10:40 pm:    Re Sheldon's Oct 20 post: A designer with whom I once worked had a variation on that one: "I like shop drawings; they're my last chance to get it the way I want it." (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 10:01 am:    One of my favorite quotes is from an old structural engineer uttered in a CD meeting, and one that I've often repeated: "It doesn't make any difference what dimension you show on the architectural drawings, structure will be in place ahead of you." Lynn Javoroski CSI CCS LEED® AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 1132 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 10:09 am:    Anne, was that colleague a structural engineer? J. Peter Jordan Senior Member Username: jpjordan Post Number: 454 Registered: 05-2004 Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 10:32 am:    If you are taking yourself too seriously, you are not taking yourself seriously enough. Dave Metzger Senior Member Username: davemetzger Post Number: 376 Registered: 07-2001 Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 02:59 pm:    "Architecture is the piece that blows off in the wind. The rest is structure." Like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940, eh? (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 02:17 pm:    Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read. Groucho Marx Lynn Javoroski CSI CCS LEED® AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 1134 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 04:42 pm:    I wonder if he'd change that now that we have Kindles and the like? Sheldon Wolfe Senior Member Username: sheldon_wolfe Post Number: 443 Registered: 01-2003 Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 06:17 pm:    Want to know who really loves you? Throw your dog and your spouse into your trunk. Come back in an hour - heck, in two minutes - open the trunk, and see which one is glad to see you. Anne Whitacre, FCSI CCS Senior Member Username: awhitacre Post Number: 1030 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 06:43 pm:    answers: no, it was an architect I worked with who said that, who is still around. And its still to dark to read in a dog even with a Kindle -- Kindles don't have backlighting. And Dave -- the Tacoma Narrows Bridge proves the point: the decking was not part of the structure and it caught the wind and started torqueing the rest of the bridge. That is why the "new " bridge had a slotted road deck. (I grew up in Tacoma and we saw that film in school every year on the anniversary of the bridge collapse. Most of us grade-schoolers were more concerned about the dog left in the car than the bridge) Anne Whitacre, FCSI CCS Senior Member Username: awhitacre Post Number: 1031 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 06:50 pm:    okay, here are my quotes, non-architecture related: "Sure God created man before woman. But then you always make a rough draft before the final masterpiece." (or a testing model if you will) anonymous "Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second-rate version of someone else." Judy Garland. John Regener, AIA, CCS, CCCA, CSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: john_regener Post Number: 476 Registered: 04-2002 Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 07:19 pm:    Three men were having drinks after a round of golf. The discussion turned to whose profession was the oldest. The first said, "I'm a surgeon. My profession is the oldest. In the Bible, God put Adam under a deep sleep, opened his side, took out a rib and then sewed him up. That's surgery and why my profession is the oldest." The next said, "At the very beginning of the Bible, there was chaos and out of chaos was created order. It takes a legal mind to make order out of chaos, and that's my profession. I'm an attorney." The third just sat back, smiled and said, "I'm an architect. Who do you think created the chaos?" David Axt, AIA, CCS, CSI Senior Member Username: david_axt Post Number: 1136 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 08:07 pm:    "Old architects never die.......they just forget where to draw the line." (I don't remember where I read it.) Sheldon Wolfe Senior Member Username: sheldon_wolfe Post Number: 444 Registered: 01-2003 Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 09:38 pm:    The engineer asks "How does it work?" The contractor asks "How did it get built?" The owner asks "How much did it cost? The architect asks "Do you want fries with that?" Lynn Javoroski CSI CCS LEED® AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 1135 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Friday, October 22, 2010 - 09:22 am:    "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." Albert Einstein Lynn Javoroski CSI CCS LEED® AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 1140 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 04:27 pm:    "When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." Mark Twain Dave Metzger Senior Member Username: davemetzger Post Number: 379 Registered: 07-2001 Posted on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 04:56 pm:    "To err is human but stupid is forever" Paul Gerber Senior Member Username: paulgerber Post Number: 36 Registered: 04-2010 Posted on Friday, November 05, 2010 - 04:08 pm:    A few of my lighter personal favourites... "Growing old is INEVITABLE, growing up is OPTIONAL!!" - I didn't pen it, but I use it often "We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw (hmmmm...I don't think I ever knew who said that until just before I posted this) "Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most!" "When I came into this world I had nothing and I am happy to report I still have most of it left." (there may be some paraphrasing in a couple of those) Ride it like you stole it!!! Robin E. Snyder Senior Member Username: robin Post Number: 338 Registered: 08-2004 Posted on Friday, November 05, 2010 - 04:13 pm:    "I'm pretty tired... I think I'll go home now." - From Forrest Gump (after running for 3 years+) In fact, that's how I feel right now - I think I'll go home now! Anne Whitacre, FCSI CCS Senior Member Username: awhitacre Post Number: 1041 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Sunday, November 07, 2010 - 02:51 pm:    I just found this one: "you're just jealous because the voices are talking to ME."