In the 20th century
we have passed through a unique period,
one in which architecture as a discipline
has been in a state that is almost unimaginably bad.
Sometimes I think of it as a mass psychosis of unprecedented dimension,
in which the people of earth
– in large numbers and in almost all contemporary societies –
have created a form of architecture which is against life,
insane, image-ridden, hollow.
The ugliness which has been created in the cities of the world,
and the banality and pretentiousness
of many 20th century buildings, streets, and parking lots
have overwhelmed the earth.
… the ugliness of what has been created
is caused by new relations between
time, money, labor, and materials
and by a set of conditions in which the real thing
– authentic architecture that has deep feeling and true worth –
is almost impossible.

from The Nature of Order,
An Essay on the Art of Building and The Nature of the Universe,
Book One, The Phenomenon of Life
by Christopher Alexander

People say that what we’re all seeking is

a meaning for life.

I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking.

I think what we’re seeking is

an experience of being alive,

so that our life experiences

on the purely physical plane

will have resonances

within our own innermost being and reality,

so that we actually feel

the rapture of being alive.

Joseph Campbell

When your eyes are tired

the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone

no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark

where the night has eyes

to recognize its own.

There you can be sure

you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb

tonight.

The night will give you a horizon

further than you can see.

You must learn one thing.

The world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds

except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet

confinement of your aloneness

to learn

anything or anyone

that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.

David Whyte from “The House of Belonging”