Lewis Mumford

“Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf.”

“Life is the only art that we are required to practice without preparation, and without being allowed the preliminary trials, the failures and botches, that are essential for the training of...”

“The last step in parental love involves the release of the beloved; the willing cutting of the cord that would otherwise keep the child in a state of emotional dependence.”

“Life is the only art that we are required to practise without preparation, and without being allowed the preliminary trials, the failures and botches, that are essential for the training of...”

“Let us fool ourselves no longer. At the very moment Western nations, threw off the ancient regime of absolute government, operating under a once-divine king, they were restoring this same sy...”

“A man of courage never needs weapons, but he may need bail.”

“Misery, mutilation, destruction, terror, starvation and death characterize the process of war and form a principal part of the product.”

“The earth is the Lord's fullness thereof: this is no longer a hollow dictum of religion, but a directive for economic action toward human brotherhood.”

“Every new baby is a blind desperate vote for survival: people who find themselves unable to register an effective political protest against extermination do so by a biological act.”

“Every generation revolts against its fathers and makes friends with its grandfathers.”

“To curb the machine and limit art to handicraft is a denial of opportunity.”

“The artist does not illustrate science (but) he frequently responds to the same interests that a scientist does.”

“Today, the degradation of the inner life is symbolized by the fact that the only place sacred from interruption is the private toilet.”

“A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind.”

“The cities and mansions that people dream of are those in which they finally live.”

“However far modern science and techniques have fallen short of their inherent possibilities, they have taught mankind at least one lesson; nothing is impossible.”

“Forget the damned motor car and build the cities for lovers and friends.”

“Traditionalists are pessimists about the future and optimists about the past.”

“Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century.”

“Restore human legs as a means of travel. Pedestrians rely on food for fuel and need no special parking facilities.”