I hope you will understand that architecture has nothing to do with the inventions of forms. It is not a playground for children, young or old. Architecture is the real battleground of the spirit.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

It must be understood that every architecture is bound to its time and manifests itself only in vital tasks and through the materials of its age. It has never been otherwise.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Never talk to a client about architecture. Talk to him about his children. That is simply good politics. He will not understand what you have to say about architecture most of the time.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Not yesterday, not tomorrow, only today can be given form. Only this architecture creates.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Our utilitarian structures will mature into architecture only when, through their fulfillment of function, they become carriers of the will of the age.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Simply by not owning three medium-sized castles in Tuscany I have saved enough money in the last forty years on insurance premiums alone to buy a medium-sized castle in Tuscany.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

The building art is, in reality, always the spatial execution of spiritual decisions. It is bound to its times and manifests itself only in addressing vital tasks with the means of its times. A knowledge of the times, its tasks, and its means is the necessary precondition of work in the building art.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

The problem of architecture has always been the same throughout time. Its authentic quality is reached through its proportions, and the proportions cost nothing. In fact, most of them are proportions among things, not the things themselves. Art is almost always a question of proportions.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

True education is concerned not only with practical goals but also with values. Our aims assure us of our material life, our values make possible our spiritual life.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity.

— Ludwig Mies van der Rohe