In science, read by preference the newest works. In literature, read the oldest. The classics are always modern.
I'd done a lot of research in Hollywood and in academia. I love research and so I wanted to kind of ground the book in history, in things that I read that were universal and timeless and then kind of let my own experiences sort of filter through all of this history.
It is good to learn from the ancients. I'm a bit of an ancient myself. They had a lot of time to think about architecture and landscape.
It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.
Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.
Books are men of higher stature; the only men that speak aloud for future times to hear.
New ideas are one of the most overrated concepts of our time. Most of the important ideas that we live with aren't new at all.
I'm not a moderniser. I accept that things like escalators do need an upgrade every now and then, but I think the fundamental principles of Conservatism have a long thread running through them that does not need to be modernised.
L'Ide e seule est e ternelle et ne cessaire. The idea alone is eternal and necessary.
But the images of men's wits and knowledges remain in books, exempted from the wrong of time, and capable of perpetual renovation.
When you connect to a primal idea - life, death, hunger, hope, fear - any of those primal ideas are going to translate, and I think that's the thing that I've always been attracted to in my work.
There are two books that I often travel with; one is 'The Theory on Moral Sentiments' by Adam Smith. The other is 'The Meditations.' It's not that I agree with either views expressed in the books, but I believe ideas and thoughts of older generations can offer food for thought for the current generation.
In science, read, by preference, the newest works; in literature, the oldest. The classic literature is always modern.
The finest and most beautiful ideas on morals and manners have been swept away before our times, and nothing is left for us but to glean after the ancients and the ablest amongst the moderns.
Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh to -day as when they first passed through their authors' minds ages ago.
And I always try to make a clean, honest, product and ideas for people to get into that can transcend time. Like the Dougie.
It is a great pleasure to transport one's-self into the spirit of the times; to see how a wise man has thought before us, and to what a glorious height we have at last carried it.
Art has to address eternal issues.
On the whole, books are indeed less finite than ourselves. Even the worst among them outlast their authors - mainly because they occupy a smaller amount of physical space than those who penned them. Often they sit on the shelves absorbing dust long after the writer himself has turned into a handful of dust.
A good idea is never lost. Even though its originator or possessor may die, it will someday be reborn in the mind of another.
The real advantage which truth has, consists in this, that when an opinion is true, it may be extinguished once, twice, or many times, but in the course of ages there will generally be found persons to rediscover it
I'm interested in themes that endure from generation to generation.
The sages of old live again in us, and in opinions there is a metempsychosis.
Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more.
Within the sacred walls of libraries we find the best thoughts, the purest feelings, and the most exalted imaginings of our race.
