Quote#Beauty
Of course there is no prima facie reason why cheap things should be…
Quote byWilliam Burges · 1827–1881
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Art applied to industry: a series of lectures, 1865, p. 1 : Preface.
English (original)
Of course there is no prima facie reason why cheap things should be ugly, for a die or mould of a good design costs no more than a bad one; but still the fact remains that the objects in use in every-day life are not beautiful, and it is to effect a change in this respect that the Government have established Schools of Design and the excellent Museum of which I shall have to speak hereafter.
— William Burges
More from William Burges
The real mission of machinery is to reduce pounds to shillings and shillings to pence.
Decidedly the best application of art to industry is when a great many copies are made from an exceedingly good pattern.
If we copy, the thing never looks right [and] the same occurs with regard to those buildings which do not profess to be copies; both they and the copies want spirit. They are dead bodies... We are at our wits.
The civil engineer is the real 19th century architect.
I have been brought up in the 13th century belief, and in that belief I intend to die.
Pugin says in one of his works that had he a cathedral to build, one of the first things he would do would be to set up a to turn the smaller columns.