Adam

“A sacred pride should grip us of not being satisfied with the mediocre but to strive (for we can do it, if we want to) with the exertion of all our strength to attain the highest. Let us scorn what is of this earth, let us ignore what is of heaven, let us leave absolutely everything worldly behind us in order to hasten to the abode out of this world, in the proximity of the sublime deity. We do not need to think of stepping back. Of being satisfied with second rank, let us strive for dignity and glory. To attain the highest.”
― Pico Della Mirandola

“The state of admiration is a condition of feeblemindedness. Most people are feebleminded all their lives only because they admire. Only a dimwit admires, the smart one doesn’t admire: he respects, observes, understands.”
― Gerhard Kopf, Piranesi's Dream

“A building has integrity just like a man. And just as seldom.”
― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

“There are books that I own that somehow even without reading them they mean something to me. So I think people have a relationship with books in a library whether you’ve come specifically to read them or not.”
― Rem Koolhaas