34 Quotes by Vitruvius

Socrates […] is recorded as having said, sagely and with the greatest acuteness, that men’s breasts should have windows in them and be open so that their thoughts would not remain concealed but open for inspection.

For all fields, and especially architecture, comprise two aspects: that which is signified and that which signifies it. [... ] Therefore it is evident that a man who wants to proclaim himself an architect must be proficient with regards to both aspects.

I think that men have no right to profess themselves architects hastily, without having climbed from the steps of these studies and thus, nursed by knowledge of many arts and sciences, having reached the heights of the holy ground of architecture.

If nature has composed the human body so that in its proportions the seperate individual elements answer to the total form, then the Ancients seem to have had reason to decide that bringing their creations to full completion likewise required a correspondence bewteen the measure of individual elements and the appearance of the work as a whole.

The ideal architect should be a man of letters, a skillful draftsman, a mathematician, familiar with historical studies, a diligent student of philosophy, acquainted with music, not ignorant of medicine, learned in the responses of jurisconsults, familiar with astronomy and astronomical calculations.

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.

Dimension regulated the general scale of the work, so that the parts may all tell and be effective.

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

Nothing requires the architect's care more than the due proportions of buildings.