Eugène Viollet-le-Duc

To restore a building is not to preserve it, to repair it, or to rebuild it; it is to re-establish it in a complete state which may never have existed at a given moment.

There are two ways of being truthful: one is to reproduce the object as it is, the other is to reproduce it as it ought to be.

Architecture is the art of building well, and building well is to build according to the needs of the time, the climate, and the materials at hand.

Form is not an arbitrary invention; it is the necessary consequence of a principle.

The true architect is not he who invents new forms, but he who discovers the principles of forms.

Every building should be a logical consequence of its program, its site, and its materials.

The architect must be a man of his time, and not a copyist of past styles.

To understand a building, one must understand the society that produced it.

The beauty of a building resides in its truthfulness, in its perfect adaptation to its purpose.

Style is not a matter of ornament, but of construction.

The architect must be a master of all trades, for he must direct them all.

The Gothic style is the most perfect system of construction ever invented.

Every detail of a building should have a reason for being there.

The architect must be a poet, a philosopher, and a scientist.

To restore is to make a building live again, not to make it new.

The past is a lesson, not a model.

Truth in architecture is the conformity of the building to its purpose and to the laws of construction.

The architect must be a man of integrity, for he holds the public trust.

The greatest architects are those who have known how to adapt their art to the needs of their time.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.