"It is where life is fundamental and free that men develop the vision needed to reveal the human soul in the blossoms it puts forth. … In a great workshop like Chicago this creative power germinates, even though the brutality and selfish preoccupation of the place drive it elsewhere for bread. Men of this type have loved Chicago, have worked for her, and believed in her. The hardest thing they have to bear is her shame. These men could live and work here when to live and work in New York would stifle their genius and fill their purse.... New York still believes that art should be imported; brought over in ships; and is a quite contented market place. So while New York has reproduced much and produced nothing, Chicago’s achievements in architecture have gained world-wide recognition as a distinctively American architecture."

Frank Lloyd Wright Education See all quotes by Frank Lloyd Wright →

React to this quote

More by Frank Lloyd Wright

“God, Creativity, and Evolution: The Argument from Designers by Michael L. Benedikt”

“The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.”

“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”

“A free America, democratic in the sense that our forefathers intended it to be, means just this: individual freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system of government we call 'democracy' is only an expedient to enslave man to the machine and make him like it.”

“Nature is all the body of God we mortals will ever see.”

“Pictures deface walls oftener than they decorate them.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Raul Hilberg: "It takes an enormous amount of academic courage to speak the truth when no one else is out there to support him. And so, I think that given this acuity of vision and analytical power, d…"

— Norman Finkelstein

Science1953

#writing

"We saw that radiation cannot suitably be pictured as particles when it is traveling through space. There is a corresponding property for electrons; these should not be pictured as waves so long as the…"

— James Jeans

Science1877–1946

#art

"Islam is the best, but we Muslims are not the best. The West is neither corrupted nor degenerate. It is strong, well-educated, and organized. Their schools are better than ours. Their cities are clean…"

— Alija Izetbegović

Politics1925–2003

#justice

"Lenin is a would-be destroyer of religion, Hitler a corrupter of religion. The National Socialist attack, accepting as it does much of liberal theology and natural religion, is far more dangerous to C…"

— Frederick Augustus Voigt

Journalism1892–1957

#religion