The essence of interior design will always be about people and how they live. It is about the realities of what makes for an attractive, civilized, meaningful environment, not about fashion or what's in or what's out. This is not an easy job. Albert Hadley
Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail Leonardo DaVinci
Be faithful to your own taste because nothing you really like is ever out of style. Billy Baldwin
Quality ... distinguishes style from fashion. Giorgio Armani
Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful and believe to be beautiful.William Morris
I owe my color sense to crayons. Angelo Rafael Donghia, New York Times
It is usually a mistake to impose an individual's taste on a room that has its own....style. Conversely, to put very fine pieces of furniture in a room that is without architectural distinction is as absurd as wearing a tiara with a bathing suit. Nancy Lancaster
Nothing is in good taste unless it suits the way you live. What's practical is beautiful...and suitability always overrules fashion. Billy Baldwin
So many young decorators are trying to reinvent the wheel, and the results are sometimes very dubious. They're striving to do things that have never been done before. Quite often it is done without authority, without knowledge, and without a background in taste. They need to be educated about the past, and they need a richer vocabulary.
Albert Hadley, The Story of America's Preeminent Interior Designer
The greatest mistake in the world is to believe that so-called good taste is any use without a sense of comfort to complete it. Sibyl Colefax
Scale is of prime importance and I think that oversized scale is better than undersized scale. Nancy Lancaster, English Country House Style
Decor must have sentimental value. A house must tell a story. Mark Hampton, Harper's Bazaar, June 1989
It is just as disastrous to have the wrong accessories in your room as it is to wear sport shoes with an evening dress. Dorothy Draper
And finally, always keep some perspective:
Decorate your home. It gives the illusion that your life is more interesting than it really is. Charles M. Schultz