80 Best Construction Quotes To Build Upon

Joan Agie
Dec 12, 2023 By Joan Agie
Originally Published on Feb 23, 2021
architecture are the literal building blocks
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Age: 0-99
Read time: 10.3 Min

Construction and architecture are the literal building blocks of modern civilization.

Construction is one of the oldest professions known to mankind. After food and clothing, shelter is the next paramount requirement, and this is provided by construction.

Construction can be defined as the art of building something. These construction quotes will put into perspective the fact that construction can be as much an art as a requirement. These construction quotes are from well-known architects and constructors and, if we look at some of these construction quotes, we will realize how much construction means to these architects.

When we look around us, beautiful buildings are among  our favorite things to view, coming second only after nature. Therefore, we have a lot of respect for builders, as they put in a lot of effort to complete a project to a high standard.

The quotes about planning and construction worker quotes found here can inspire the people who love buildings and construction and lead them on the path of success.

If you like these quotes about building and other funny construction quotes, please also check out these building quotes and [house quotes] articles for more!

The Best Construction Quotes

Here are some of the best construction quotes by celebrities and architects such as David Allan Coe, Arnold Palmer and Adrienne Clarkson. These individuals have met success in the world of construction and wish to inspire others to achieve a similar level of success.

1. “We shape our buildings- thereafter, they shape us.”

– Winston Churchill.

2. “Building is about getting around the obstacles that are presented to you.”

– Jeremy Renner.

3. “You can dream, create, design, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it requires people to make the dream a reality.”

– Walt Disney.

4. “A great building must begin with the immeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed, and in the end must be unmeasured.”

– Louis Kahn.

5. “Each of us is carving a stone, erecting a column, or cutting a piece of stained glass in the construction of something much bigger than ourselves.”

– Adrienne Clarkson.

6. “Good buildings come from good people, and all problems are solved by good design.”

– Stephen Gardiner.

7. “It is not the beauty of the building you should look at: it’s the construction of the foundation that will stand the test of time.”

– David Allan Coe.

8. “The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this. That a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed- but a thing created is loved before it exists.”

– Charles Dickens.

9. “There is nothing more poetic and terrible than the skyscrapers’ battle with the heavens that cover them.”

– Federico Garcia Lorca.

10. “To me, a building, if it is beautiful, is the love of one man, he's made it out of his love for space, materials, things like that.”

– Martha Graham.

11. “The four building blocks of the universe are fire, water, gravel and vinyl.”

–Dave Berry.

12. “The road to success is always under construction.”

–Arnold Palmer.

13. “If a building looks better under construction than it does when finished, then it’s a failure.”

–Doug Coupland.

14. “Life is like a highway, no matter what they say, the construction is never finished.”

–Nishan Panwar.

15. “The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.”

–Glenn Gould.

16. “Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection. Its basic elements are logic and intuition, analysis and construction, generality and individuality.”

–Richard Courant.

17. “Proportion is the heart of beauty.”

― Ken Follett.

18. “The palace started as a single vaulted room and grew in proportion to my despair. It began as an exercise to keep my mind from its melancholy, then it became a dream and a necessity. I built a temple in my head.”

― Lisa St. Aubin de Teran

19. “Pictures deface walls oftener than they decorate them.”

- Frank Lloyd Wright.

20. “Good ideas come from everywhere. It is more important to recognize a good idea than to author it.”

- Jeanne Gang.

Famous Construction Quotes

Some of these construction quotes are extremely famous and well known. These construction quotes are a source of inspiration for all.

construction quotes are extremely famous and well known

21. “I walk past a construction site and manage a fond smile as I watch the workers clean-up for the day.”

― Melanie A. Smith.

22. "What I try to do is the art of building, and the art of building is the art of construction. It is not only about forms and shapes and images."

― Peter Zumthor.

23. "The good building is not one that hurts the landscape, but one which makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before the building was built."

― Frank Lloyd Wright.

24. “We create our buildings and then they create us. Likewise, we construct our circle of friends and our communities and then they construct us.”

― Frank Lloyd Wright.

25. “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

- Steve Jobs.

26. “Construction is the art of making a meaningful whole out of many parts. Buildings are witnesses to the human ability to construct concrete things.”

― Peter Zumthor.

27. “The real beauty of the building is seen when the right paints touch its walls.”

― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah.

28. “I prefer to work with the looseness of pencil than the precision of ink or a computer.”

― Thom Mayne.

29. “The truth is that a nineteenth-century warehouse exhibits greater craft in its construction than all but the most expensive modern buildings.”

― Witold Rybczynski.

30. “Every great building once begun as a building plan. That means, sitting in that building plan on the table is a mighty structure not yet seen. It is the same with dreams.”

― Israelmore Ayivor.

31. “A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.”

-Frank Lloyd Wright.

32. “A world which sees art and engineering as divided is not seeing the world as a whole.”

- Professor Sir Edmund Happold.

33. “If you build it, they will come.”

- Ray Kinsella, 'Field Of Dreams'.

34. “Great buildings, like great mountains, are the work of centuries.”

-Victor Hugo.

35. “When we build, let us think that we build forever.”

-John Ruskin.

36. “Architecture begins where engineering ends.”

- Walter Gropius.

37. “The details are not the details. They make the design.”

- Charles Eames.

38. “I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster and leaves less room for lies.”

- Le Corbusier.

39. "I believe that the real core of all architectural work lies in the act of construction. At the point in time, concrete materials are assembled and erected, the architecture we have been looking for becomes part of the real world."

― Peter Zumthor.

Some Notable Construction Quotes On Design And Architecture

These construction quotes discuss the passion of architects on these extraordinary projects, who use all their experience and skills to create a design that will last through time. Pick your favorite quotes from the ones below.

Construction safety quotes help convey care and caution to the brave builders out there.

40. “I don’t know why people hire architects and then tell them what to do!”

- Frank O Gehry.

41. “Architecture is the masterly, correct, and magnificent play of masses brought together in light. Our eyes are made to see forms in light: light and shade reveal these forms.”

– Le Corbusier.

42. “Architects spend an entire life with this unreasonable idea that you can fight against gravity.”

- Renzo Piano.

43. “Good design is sustainable. Great design is responsible.”

- Unknown*.

44. “The pencil and computer are, if left to their own devices, equally dumb and only as good as the person driving them.”

- Sir Norman Foster.

45. “People who build their own home tend to be very courageous. These people are curious about life. They are thinking about what it means to live in a house, rather than just buying a commodity and making it work.”

-Tom Kundig.

46. “The sun never knew how great it was until it struck the side of a building.”

– Louis Kahn.

47. “You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledgehammer on the construction site.”

– Frank Lloyd Wright.

48. “As an architect, you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown.”

– Sir Norman Foster.

49. “There are 360 degrees, so why stick to one?”

― Zaha Hadid.

50. “Architecture is the art of how to waste space.”

Philip Johnson.

51. “I don’t want to be interesting. I want to be good.”

– Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

52. “My buildings are more famous than me.”

– Jean Nouvel.

53. “God created paper for the purpose of drawing architecture on it. Everything else is, at least for me, an abuse of paper.”

– Alvar Aalto.

54. “Architecture is a visual art and the buildings speak for themselves.”

– Julia Morgan.

55. “I call architecture frozen music.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

56. “Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There is begins.”

– Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

57. “Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.”

– Le Corbusier.

58. “Each new situation requires a new architecture.”

– Jean Nouvel.

59. “Architecture is inhabited sculpture.”

– Constantin Brancusi.

60. “Architecture is an expression of values.”

– Sir Norman Foster.

Well Known Construction Quotes

These construction quotes are known across the spectrum of all professions and might even inspire a lot of people to take up architecture as a profession. These quotes will help you hop on the road to success.

61. “Form follows profit is the aesthetic principle of our times.”

– Richard Rogers.

62. “Any work of architecture which does not express serenity is a mistake.”

– Luis Barragan.

63. “We do not create the work. I believe we, in fact, are discoverers.”

– Glenn Murcutt.

64. “One of the great beauties of architecture is that each time it is like life starting all over again.”

– Renzo Piano.

65. “Architecture is not about space but about time.”

– Vito Acconel.

66. “The door handle is the handshake of the building.”

– Juhani Pallasmaa.

67. “The difference between good and bad architecture is the time you spend on it.”

– David Chipperfield.

68. “I don’t build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build.”

– Ayn Rand.

69. “Architecture is the reaching out for the truth.”

– Louis Kahn.

70. “God is in the details.”

– Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

71. “I believe that the way people live can be directed a little by architecture.”

– Tadao Ando.

72. “My architecture is easy to understand and enjoy, I hope it also is hard to forget.”

– Oscar Niemeyer.

73. “Even a brick wants to be something.”

– Louis Kahn.

74. “A room is not a room without natural light.”

– Louis Kahn.

75. “Life is architecture and architecture is the mirror of life.”

– I.M. Pei.

76. “Build! Don’t talk.”

– Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

77. “Architects can’t force people to connect, it can only plan the crossing points, remove barriers and make the meeting places useful and attractive.”

– Denise Scott.

78. "Light, God’s eldest daughter, is a principal beauty in a building."

– Thomas Fuller.

79. “I don’t think of form as a kind of architecture. The architecture is the result of the forming. It is the kinesthetic and visual sense of position and wholeness that puts the thing into the realm of art.”

– Roy Lichtenstein.

80. “All architecture is great architecture after sunset- perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.”

– G.K. Chesterton.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes articles for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 80 of the best construction quotes, then why not take a look at the following plumbing quotes or [boss quotes] articles too?

*Do you know where this quote originated? Please email us to let us know at hello@kidadl.com

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Written by Joan Agie

Bachelor of Science specializing in Human Anatomy

Joan Agie picture

Joan AgieBachelor of Science specializing in Human Anatomy

With 3+ years of research and content writing experience across several niches, especially on education, technology, and business topics. Joan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Anatomy from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria, and has worked as a researcher and writer for organizations across Nigeria, the US, the UK, and Germany. Joan enjoys meditation, watching movies, and learning new languages in her free time.

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