Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Leave a cavity behind the [wall] facings, and on the inside build walls two feet thick, made of red dimension stone or…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Bricks should be made in Spring or Autumn so that they may dry uniformly.

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

It is no secret that the moon has no light of her own, but is, as it were, a mirror, receiving brightness…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Burn shavings and splinters of pitch pine, and when they turn to charcoal, put them out, and pound them into mortar with…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

With the ripening of the fruits in Autumn the leaves begin to wither and the trees, taking up their sap from the…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Astronomers have a common ground for discussion with musicians in the harmony of the stars and musical concords in tetrads and triads…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

The difference between "machines" and "engines" is obviously this, that machines need more workmen and greater power to make them take effect,…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

The [engineer] should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of study and varied kinds of learning, for it is by his…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

All these soft kinds [of stone] have the advantage that they can be easily worked as soon as they have been taken…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Apollo at Delphi, through the oracular utterance of his priestess, pronounced Socrates the wisest of men. Of him it is related that…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Music, also, the architect ought to understand so that he may have knowledge of the canonical and mathematical theory, and besides be…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Architecture depends on Order, Arrangement, Eurythmy, Symmetry , Propriety , and Economy.

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

In all matters but particularly in architecture, that which is signified is the subject of which we may be speaking and that…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

In felling a tree we should cut into the trunk of it to the very heart, and then leave it standing so…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

In fact, all kinds of men, and not merely architects, can recognize a good piece of work.

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

In Sparta, paintings have been taken out of certain walls by cutting through the bricks, then have been placed in wooden frames,…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Thus by such victory, not by machines but in oppositions to the principle to the principles of machines, has the freedom of…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

As for philosophy, it makes an architect high-minded and not self-assuming, but rather renders him courteous, just, and honest without avariciousness. This…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Trees which grow in places facing the course of the sun are not of porous fiber but are solid, being drained by…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Next I must tell about the machine of Ctesibius, which raises water to a height.

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

There are two styles of walls "opus reticulatum," now used by everybody and the ancient style called "opus incertum." Of these, the…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

When the juices of trees have no means of escape, they clot and rot in them, making the trees hollow and good…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

As regards the efficacy of the art and the theories of it, I promise and expect that in these volumes I shall…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

At Halicarnassus, the house of that most potent king Mausolus, though decorated throughout with Proconnesian marble, has walls built of brick which…

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

There will be no propriety in the spectacle of an elegant interior approached by a low mean entrance.

— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio