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Oscar Niemeyer

12 quotes

Sometimes a single quote is enough to make a name memorable. Oscar Niemeyer has given us several. Their thinking spans from Architecture to Beauty, revealing a mind that refused to stay in one lane. Browse 12 quotes by Oscar Niemeyer that cover ground from Architecture, Beauty, Morning, Dreams, and Design. Among their most shared lines: "For me beauty is valued more than anything - the beauty that is manifest in a curved line or in an act of creativity."

“Architecture is my work, and I've spent my whole life at a drawing board, but life is more important than architecture. What matters is to improve human beings.”

— Oscar Niemeyer

Architecture

All Quotes by Oscar Niemeyer

“I search for surprise in my architecture. A work of art should cause the emotion of newness.”

— Oscar Niemeyer

Architecture

“For me beauty is valued more than anything - the beauty that is manifest in a curved line or in an act of creativity.”

— Oscar Niemeyer

Beauty

“Architecture is invention.”

— Oscar Niemeyer

Architecture

“Humanity needs dreams to be able to survive the miseries of daily existence, even if only for an instant.”

— Oscar Niemeyer

Dreams

“Architecture will always express the technical and social progress of the country in which it is carried out. If we wish to give it the human content that it lacks, we must participate in the political struggle.”

— Oscar Niemeyer

Architecture

“It was the drawing that led me to architecture, the search for light and astonishing forms.”

— Oscar Niemeyer

Architecture

“Architecture is my work, and I've spent my whole life at a drawing board, but life is more important than architecture. What matters is to improve human beings.”

— Oscar Niemeyer

Architecture

“Sometimes I lose a whole morning waiting on journalists and other people who look for me. But I always find some time for reading, talking to my friends and feeling what is happening in this world.”

— Oscar Niemeyer

Morning

“Form follows beauty.”

— Oscar Niemeyer

Beauty

“It is not with architecture that one can disseminate any political ideology.”

— Oscar Niemeyer

Architecture

“There is no reason to design buildings that are more basic and rectilinear, because with concrete you can cover almost any space.”

— Oscar Niemeyer

Design

“My work is not about 'form follows function,' but 'form follows beauty' or, even better, 'form follows feminine.'”

— Oscar Niemeyer

Beauty