About us | A design philosophy — of a sort

Yet another architectural pontification:

It is a great mortification to the vanity of man, that his utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of nature's productions, either for beauty or value.

David Hume. Essays, Moral and Political: The Epicurean, 1742. Essay XV.

Thus it is said that Nature does not multiply things unnecessarily; that she makes use of the easiest and simplest means for producing her effects; that she does nothing in vain, and the like.

Galileo Galilei. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, 1632.^*

and, for the sake of diversity …

… if every one were cast in the same mould, there would be no such thing as beauty.

Charles Darwin. The Descent of Man, 1871. Chapter XIX.