John M. Grunsfeld

There's a perspective that I've gained as an astronaut that I didn't get from my science activities. In my science activities, I learned by the seat of my pants. Spending 17 years as an astronaut, I learned the NASA formalism of systems engineering as if my life depended on it. Literally.

American Astronaut

George Edward Woodberry

Art has a double visage: it looks before and after. Romance is its forward-looking face. The germ of growth is in romanticism. Formalism, on the other hand, consolidates tradition; gleans what has been gained and makes it facile to the hand or the mind; economizes the energy of genius.

American Critic

Peter Greenaway

It's a big criticism of Greenaway films that they are far too interested in formalism and not enough interested in notions of emotional content. It's a criticism I can fully understand from a public that has been brought up by Hollywood movies that demand intense emotional rapport.

British Director

Max Bill

Far from creating a new formalism, what these can yield is something far transcending surface values since they not only embody form as beauty, but also form in which intuitions or ideas or conjectures have taken visible substance.

Swiss Architect

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

We refuse to recognize problems of form, but only problems of building. Form is not the aim of our work, but only the result. Form, by itself, does not exist. Form as an aim is formalism; and that we reject.

American Architect

Charles Bukowski

I kept writing not because I felt I was so good, but because I felt they were so bad, including Shakespeare, all those. The stilted formalism, like chewing cardboard.

American Author

Form as a goal always ends in formalism. For this striving is directed not towards an inside, but towards an outside. But only a living inside has a living outside.

David Longstreth

Bjork has this kind of abstraction and formalism that you associate with art music or avant-garde music.

American Musician

Felix Adler

The exercises of our meeting are to be simple and devoid of all ceremonial and formalism.

German Educator

Means focusing on following the rules meticulously, sometimes without considering practical aspects.

Rule-Oriented

Using formalism can make actions seem less personal, as personal feelings are set aside.

Impersonal Approach

Prioritizes technical structure in creative works, placing less importance on the creator's emotion.

Structure Over Emotion

Often used in an academic or critical setting when analyzing the style of certain art forms.

Academic Style

Emphasizes the use of logic and reason rather than personal beliefs in philosophical discussions.

Logic Priority

Reflects a scientific, verifiable approach to understanding concepts, rather than subjective interpretation.

Objective Analysis

Focuses on abstract symbols in math without necessarily connecting to real-world meanings.

Abstract Concepts

Values precise formal expressions more than intuitive or visual understanding in math.