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The architect must not only understand drawing, but music.

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

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Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
Drawing
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Architecture

More quotes by 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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In felling a tree we should cut into the trunk of it to the very heart, and then leave it standing so that the sap may drain out drop by drop throughout the whole of it... Then and not till then, the tree being drained dry and the sap no longer dripping, let it be felled and it will be in the highest state of usefulness.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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Burn shavings and splinters of pitch pine, and when they turn to charcoal, put them out, and pound them into mortar with size. This will make a pretty black for fresco painting.
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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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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Philosophy treats of physics where a more careful knowledge is required because the problems which come under this head are numerous... So the reader of Ctesibius or Archimedes and the other writers of treatises of the same class will not be able to appreciate them unless he has been trained in these subjects by the philosophers.
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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But I, Caesar, have not sought to amass wealth by the practice of my art, having been rather contented with a small fortune and reputation, than desirous of abundance accompanied by a want of reputation.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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Next I must tell about the machine of Ctesibius, which raises water to a height.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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Of course, we need not be surprised if artistic excellence goes unrecognized on account of being unknown but there should be the greatest indignation when, as often, good judges are flattered by the charm of social entertainments into an approbation which is a mere a pretence.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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The construction of temples of the Ionic order to Juno, Diana, Father Bacchus, and the other gods of that kind, will be in keeping with the middle position which they hold for the building of such will be an appropriate combination of the severity of the Doric and the delicacy of the Corinthian.
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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The thickness of the walls should be sufficient for two armed men to pass each other with ease.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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When it passes towards the east, the sun begins to have less effect upon it, and a thin line on the edge of its bright side emits its splendour towards the earth.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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Noting all these things with the great delight which learning gives, we cannot but be stirred by these discoveries when we reflect upon the influence of them one by one.
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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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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The difference between machines and engines is obviously this, that machines need more workmen and greater power to make them take effect, as for instance ballistae and the beams of presses. Engines, on the other hand, accomplish their purpose at the intelligent touch of a single workman...
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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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