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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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Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
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More quotes by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

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Basilicas should be constructed on a site adjoining the forum and in the warmest possible quarter, so that in winter business men may gather in them without being troubled by the weather.
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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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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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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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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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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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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Oak... lasts for an unlimited period when buried in underground structures... when exposed to moisture... it cannot take in liquid on account of its compactness, but, withdrawing from the moisture, it resists it and warps, thus making cracks.
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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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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The [engineer] should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of study and varied kinds of learning, for it is by his judgement that all work done by the other arts is put to test. This knowledge is the child of practice and theory.
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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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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The architect must not only understand drawing, but music.
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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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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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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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.
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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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