“Beauty alone is an excellent reason for many things, but when a design is in direct conflict with common sense it cannot be a work of art.”

—  Ernest Flagg

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)
Context: Reason... to suppose any production, worthy to be called a work of art, can be made without its use is foolish.... By the use of reason many mistakes in design may be avoided and many counterfeits of art readily detected.... Beauty alone is an excellent reason for many things, but when a design is in direct conflict with common sense it cannot be a work of art.

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Ernest Flagg photo
Ernest Flagg 65
American architect 1857–1947

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