There are no straight lines or sharp corners in nature.

Hear, O children of creation, the words of Antoni Gaudí, the great architect of Barcelona, who proclaimed: “There are no straight lines or sharp corners in nature. Therefore, buildings must have no straight lines or sharp corners.” In these words lies a truth both mystical and practical, a truth that unites art with the living breath of the earth. For Gaudí understood that nature is the first teacher, and that human hands build wisely only when they follow the patterns of the divine design already inscribed in the hills, the rivers, and the trees.

Look upon the forests, upon the shells of the sea, upon the clouds of the heavens—do you find straight lines there? Nay. You find curves, spirals, waves, and arcs, flowing without rigidity, full of motion and grace. Nature abhors the sterile line, the unyielding angle. It teaches that life is movement, transformation, and balance. To build against these laws is to build against life itself; to build with them is to join in the eternal symphony of creation. Gaudí, in seeing this, became not merely an architect of stone but a disciple of the living world.

His works, such as the great Sagrada Família, rise like forests of stone and light. Its columns are not stiff and square, but branching like trees, reaching heavenward with the majesty of living trunks. Its walls curve like waves, its ornaments bloom like flowers, its windows scatter light like leaves in sunlight. Gaudí’s genius was not in invention, but in obedience—to the rhythms of nature, to the wisdom that all beauty is born of curves. His architecture does not impose upon the earth; it grows from it, as if the stones themselves had chosen their form.

History shows us that the greatest builders often turned to nature as their guide. The architects of Gothic cathedrals traced their arches to the bending of a bow and the branching of trees. The engineers of seashell-inspired domes found strength in the spiral. Leonardo da Vinci sketched machines that mimicked the wings of birds, and bridges curved like rivers. All these testify to the same law: when human creation mirrors the natural world, it attains harmony, strength, and beauty.

The meaning of Gaudí’s words extends beyond stone and mortar. To live as nature teaches is to abandon rigidness of spirit, to let go of sharp corners in our hearts. Just as buildings must curve to echo the flow of life, so too must our souls bend with compassion, adapt with humility, and move with grace. The man who insists on living only by straight lines—unyielding, inflexible—will shatter under the storms of life. But the one who bends like the reed will endure, rooted in harmony with the greater order.

The lesson, then, is clear: look to nature for guidance in all that you do. When you create, let it shape your art. When you work, let it guide your rhythm. When you live, let it teach you balance, patience, and fluidity. For in the curves of a river lies the wisdom of persistence; in the spiral of a shell, the wisdom of growth; in the arc of a tree branch, the wisdom of reaching higher without breaking.

Practical wisdom follows: walk outside, observe, and imitate. If you are a builder, let your designs breathe with curves. If you are an artist, let your lines dance like vines. If you are a leader, let your authority bend with mercy rather than crush with hardness. And if you are a seeker of truth, let your heart imitate the flowing forms of nature, for in them is the signature of eternity.

Thus, O children of tomorrow, remember Gaudí’s words: there are no straight lines in nature. To follow them is to follow life, to reject them is to embrace sterility. Build, create, and live as the earth itself does—curved, flowing, full of grace. For in curves lies beauty, in curves lies strength, and in curves lies the eternal song of creation.