Freedom is born of self-discipline. No individual, no nation, can achieve or maintain liberty without self-control. The undisciplined man (or woman) is a slave to his own weaknesses.

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.

A designer knows he has achieved perfection, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

We firmly believe that in order for a building to be sustainable, it must be loved; it must touch the soul. People—not just the current owners, but future generations—must find enough value in a building to continue to occupy and maintain it. Some of this is aesthetic, some performance, some economics. The Roman architect Vitruvius told us that buildings must have "Firmness, Commodity and Delight". True today more than ever.

In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.

In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.

When at eve, at the bounding of the landscape, the heavens appear to recline so slowly on the earth, imagination pictures beyond the horizon an asylum of hope, - a native land of love; and nature seems silently to repeat that man is immortal.

If you keep your eyes so fixed on heaven that you never look at the earth, you will stumble into hell.