Who do you think was better at coming up with architectural aphorisms.....

[TEPaul]

....the ODGs or today's architects?

Over the years having read many of the books and articles I would have to say the ODGs were better at it, as shocking as that might seem to most on here.

And, IF that is true (and I admit it's a big IF) the reasons for it have just got to be pretty interesting.

What do you think, and why? 



PS:
I do admit, I never would've even thought of this thread's subject if it were not for Mike Young's really good thread of today (on the first page as of now).

[Mike_Young]

I would say they were better because the written word was used more then...... and most had been to school in Philadelphia....isn't that right?

[TEPaul]

"...... and most had been to school in Philadelphia....isn't that right?"


Wow, you've got to get up here more if you want to understand the history of this town. We're talking Ivy League now if you're talking back then. In the Ivy League school pecking order Philadelphia was fifth string, maybe even seventh string. Probably still is.

Some of those "amateur/sportsmen" architects back then actually left town and went to Harvard, Yale or Princeton but back then intelligence didn't have anything to do with it. Back then it was only about money and social position. Shit, Mike, most all those so-called "amateur/sportsmen" Philly guys like Wilson, Crump and Thomas were so dumb it wasn't until right around the end of the first world war before they even realized there was such a thing as a professional golf course architect.

[Bart Bradley]

Tom:

What do you think is the greatest aphorism ever written?

Bart

[Chris Cupit]

Personal favorite:  Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither.— Benjamin Franklin

Descriptive of the some time "schradenfreudic" (yeah I made that word up) nature of GCA??:  It is not uncommon to commiserate with a stranger's misfortune, but it takes a really fine nature to appreciate a friend's success. — Oscar Wilde

And perhaps a timely one:  The true purpose of the stock market is to make, of the greatest number of men, the greatest number of fools.

And the lamest golf aphorism ever:  "never up, never in". 

[Jim_Kennedy]

TE,
Leave Max Behr out and I agree with you. 

It always seemed to me that my grandfather could do just about anything. Not only did he make it look easy, he could also explain what he was doing in the simplest of terms. He also had the most incredibly beautiful handwriting, which made an everyday shopping list look Constitutional. He was a small boy in 1910.

I think those skills were  more a product of his time that of ours, and were given more worth then than now.


Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. -Einstein

[Jeff_Brauer]

I think gca's of most era's use too many words to say, essentially, nothing.

[Jim Thompson]

I think gca's of most era's use too many words to say, essentially, nothing.

Agreed!

Even in days gone by the trick was just to turn a phrase and all we do today is tweak and twist to make them our own.  They stole ideas and phrases from their predecessors just as we do ours.

Given today’s issues, the old Latin proverb seems rather apropos:  Absurdum est ut alios regat, qui seipsum regere nescit (It is absurd that a man should rule others, who cannot rule himself.)

Cheers!

JT