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Beauty is produced by the pleasing appearance and good taste of the whole, and by the dimensions of all the parts being duly proportioned to each other.

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

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Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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More quotes by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

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Now architecture consists of order, which in Greek is called taxis ... Order is the balanced adjustment of the details of the work separately, and, as to the whole, the arrangement of the proportion with a view to a symmetrical result.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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The third order, called Corinthian, is an imitation of the slenderness of a maiden for the outlines and limbs of maidens, being more slender on account of their tender years, admit of prettier effects in the way of adornment.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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There are also half bricks. As the bricks are always laid so as to break joints, this lends strength and a not unattractive appearance to both sides of such walls.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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There are many names for winds derived from localities or from the squalls which sweep from rivers or down mountains.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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At Jaffa in Syria and among the Nomads in Arabia, are lakes of enormous size that yield very large masses of asphalt, which are carried off by the inhabitants thereabouts.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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Nothing requires the architect's care more than the due proportions of buildings.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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The stone in quarries is found to be of different and unlike qualities. In some it is soft, in others it is medium, in still others it is hard as in lava quarries. There are also numerous other kinds: for instance, in Campania, red and black tufas in Umbria, Picenum, and Venetia, white tufa which can be cut with a toothed saw like wood.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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It is no secret that the moon has no light of her own, but is, as it were, a mirror, receiving brightness from the influence of the sun.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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The design of a temple depends on symmetry, the principles of which must be most carefully observed by the architect.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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There are two styles of walls opus reticulatum, now used by everybody and the ancient style called opus incertum. Of these, the reticulatum looks better, but its construction makes it likely to crack. On the other hand, in the opus incertum, the rubble lying in courses and imbricated, makes a wall which though not beautiful, is stronger.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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When the juices of trees have no means of escape, they clot and rot in them, making the trees hollow and good for nothing.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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From food and water, then, we may learn whether sites are naturally unhealthy or healthy.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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If then, at this great distance, our human vision can discern that sight, why, pray, are we to think that the divine splendor of the stars can be cast into darkness?
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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There will be no propriety in the spectacle of an elegant interior approached by a low mean entrance.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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Consistency is found in that work whose whole and detail are suitable to the occasion. It arises from circumstance, custom, and nature.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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Harmony is an obscure and difficult musical science, but most difficult to those who are not acquainted with the Greek language because it is necessary to use many Greek words to which there are none corresponding in Latin.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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Proportion is that agreeable harmony between the several parts of a building, which is the result of a just and regular agreement of them with each other the height to the width, this to the length, and each of these to the whole.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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An architect ought to be an educated man so as to leave a more lasting remembrance in his treatises.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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Some have held that there are only four winds: Solanus from the east Auster from the south Favonius from due west Septentrio from the north. But more careful investigators tell us that there are eight.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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Architecture is a science arising out of many other sciences, and adorned with much and varied learning by the help of which a judgment is formed of those works which are the result of other arts.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio