Stewart Brand Quotes

Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity.

To use is necessary. And if you can't be used, then you're useless.

Some are created for beauty, and some for use; and there are some which one can do without altogether.

Everything that I make I use.

Furniture is meant to be used and enjoyed.

We need to rediscover the essence of the meaning of 'the use.' Architecture is, above all, here for a better living. Every gesture, every shape must be justified by various reasons that would reinforce their reason to be, their use, and will give more sense to their beauty.

Always think of what is useful and not what is beautiful. Beauty will come of its own accord.

The goodness of a thing created is the perfection of its fitness for the use which it serves. Now that use is either particular or universal.

Books should to one of these fours ends conduce, for wisdom, piety, delight, or use.

The meaning or value of a thing consists of what it affords.

We all use something - you can't drill holes with your fingers. Whether it's a knife, a needle, or a machine, we all need the help of a device.

If something is functional, you no longer think about it. I care about how meaningful things are.

It is as to whether its services or uses are to be exchanged or not which makes a tool an article of capital or merely an article of wealth. Thus, the lathe of a manufacturer used in making things which are to be exchanged is capital, while the lathe kept by a gentleman for his own amusement is not.

Usefulness depends on tractability.

There is a use for almost everything.

Reason is a bee, and exists only on what it makes; his usefulness takes the place of beauty.

The abuse of a thing is no argument against the use of it.

I believe that inside every tool is a hammer.

Knowledge has no value except that which can be gained from its application toward some worthy end.

On the dashboard of our family car is a shallow indentation about the size of a paperback book. If you are looking for somewhere to put your sunglasses or spare change, it is the obvious place, and it works extremely well, I must say, so long as the car is not actually moving. However, as soon as you put the car in motion ... everything slides off ... It can hold nothing that has not been nailed to it. So I ask you: what then is it for?

The beautiful is as useful as the useful." He added after a moment’s silence, "Perhaps more so.

These papers of the day have uses more adequate to the purposes of common life than more pompous and durable volumes.

I only use a camera like I use a toothbrush. It does the job.

Only that which serves no end is beautiful; everything useful is ugly.