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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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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.
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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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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.
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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.
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Nothing suffers annihilation, but at dissolution there is a change, and things fall back to the essential element in which they were before.
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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.
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It was a wise and useful provision of the ancients to transmit their thoughts to posterity by recording them in treatises, so that they should not be lost, but, being developed in succeeding generations through publications in books, should gradually attain in later times, to the highest refinement of learning.
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The thickness of the walls should be sufficient for two armed men to pass each other with ease.
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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...
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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.
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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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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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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.
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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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From prescription, in the case of hypaethral edifices, open to the sky, in honor of Jupiter Lightning, the Heaven, the Sun, or the Moon: for these are gods whose semblances and manifestations we behold before our very eyes in the sky when it is cloudless and bright.
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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 fact, all kinds of men, and not merely architects, can recognize a good piece of work.
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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.
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Architects should be educated, skillful with the pencil, instructed in geometry, know much history, have followed the philosophers with attention, understand music, have some knowledge of medicine, know the opinions of the jurists, and be acquainted with astronomy and the theory of the heavens
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In the midst of all this great variety of subjects, an individual cannot attain to perfection in each, because it is scarcely in his power to take in and comprehend the general theories of them.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio