Top Marcus Vitruvius Pollio Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio Biography

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (/vɪˈtruːviəs ˈpɒlioʊ/; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC), commonly known as Vitruvius, was a Roman author, architect, civil engineer and military engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled De architectura. His discussion of perfect proportion in architecture and the human body led to the famous Renaissance drawing by Leonardo da Vinci of Vitruvian Man.

Read about Marcus Vitruvius Pollio in Wikipedia

Random Authors

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio Quotes

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.

Eye, Moon, Open, Sky, Sun

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.

Design, Details, Order, Views, Whole

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.

General, Individual, Midst, Perfection, Scarcely, Theories

Pytheos made a mistake by not observing that the arts are each composed of two things, the actual work and the theory of it. One of these, the doing of the work, is proper to men trained in the individual subject, while the other the theory is common to all scholars.

Art, Mistake, Men, Observing, Subject, Arts

Nobody draws the light for covered wine rooms from the south or west, but rather from the north, since that quarter is never subject to change but is always constant and unshifting. So it is with granaries: grain exposed to the sun's course soon loses its good quality, and provisions and fruit, unless stored in a place unexposed to the sun's course, do not keep long.

Granaries, Light, Long, Subject, Wine

A harmonious design requires that nothing be added or taken away.

Inspirational, Taken, Design, Added, Requires

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?

Cast, Darkness, Distance, Divine, Stars, Thinking

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.

Begins, Hoarfrost, Order, Winter, Years

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.

Father, Keeping, Kind, Order, Severity, Temples

Consistency is found in that work whose whole and detail are suitable to the occasion. It arises from circumstance, custom, and nature.

Arise, Circumstance, Consistency, Custom, Details, Work

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.

Cutting, Heart, Leave, Standing, Tree, Trunk

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.

Baby, Choice, Cold, Rain, Temperate, Wall

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.

Black, Cutting, Hard, Umbria, White, Wood

I am moreover inclined to be concise when I reflect on the constant occupation of the citizens in public and private affairs, so that in their few leisure moments they may read and understand as much as possible.

Citizens, Constant, May, Occupation, Possible, Reflect

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.

Away, Grow, Heat, Melting, Resistance

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.

Country, Magnesia, Spring, Tarsus, Voice, Voices

Geometry. . . is of much assistance in architecture, and in particular it teaches us the use of the rule and compasses, by which especially we acquire readiness in making plans for buildings in their grounds, and rightly apply the square, the level, and the plummet. By means of optics. . . the light in buildings can be drawn from fixed quarters of the sky. . . . Difficult questions involving symmetry are solved by means of geometrical theories and methods.

Apply, Compasses, Light, Mean, Rule, Squares

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.

Art, Desirous, Practice, Want, Wealth

Architect's designs must refer to the unquestionable perfection of the body's symmetry and proportions. If a building is to create a sense of eurythmia, it is essential that it mirrors these natural laws of harmony and beauty

Mirrors, Law, Perfection, Essential, Building

Since, therefore, individuals as well as the public are so indebted to these writers for the benefits they enjoy, I think them not only entitled to the honour of palms and crowns, but even to be numbered among the gods.

Benefits, Crowns, Enjoy, Indebted, Thinking

1