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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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Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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There are also in some places springs which have the peculiarity of giving fine singing voices to the natives, as at Tarsus in Magnesia and in other countries of that kind.
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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.
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Bodies which contain a greater proportion of water than is necessary to balance the other elements, are speedily corrupted, and lose their virtues and properties.
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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.
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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.
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If our designs for private houses are to be correct, we must at the outset take note of the countries and climates in which they are built.
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There are also kinds of water that cause death, as they run through harmful juices in the soil and become poisonous.
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With the ripening of the fruits in Autumn the leaves begin to wither and the trees, taking up their sap from the earth through the roots, recover themselves and are restored to their former solid texture. But the strong air of winter compresses and solidifies them.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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In fact, all kinds of men, and not merely architects, can recognize a good piece of work.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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As for philosophy, it makes an architect high-minded and not self-assuming, but rather renders him courteous, just, and honest without avariciousness. This is very important, for no work can be rightly done without honesty and incorruptibility.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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Heat is a universal solvent, melting out of things their power of resistance, and sucking away and removing their natural strength with its fiery exhalations so that they grow soft, and hence weak, under its glow.
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
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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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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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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.
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In setting out the walls of a city the choice of a healthy situation is of the first importance: it should be on high ground, neither subject to fogs nor rains its aspects should be neither violently hot nor intensely cold, but temperate in both respects.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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But as for me, Emperor, nature has not given me stature, age has marred my face, and my strength is impaired by ill health. Therefore, since these advantages fail me, I shall win your approval, as I hope, by the help of my knowledge and my writings.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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In order that the mortar in the joints may not suffer from frosts, drench it with oil-dregs every year before winter begins. Thus treated, it will not let the hoarfrost enter it.
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For we must not build temples according to the same rules to all gods alike, since the performance of the sacred rites varies with the various gods.
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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