“At first they set up forked stakes connected by twigs and covered these walls with mud. Others made walls of lumps of dried mud, covering them with reeds and leaves to keep out the rain and the heat. Finding that such roofs could not stand the rain during the storms of winter, they built them with peaks daubed with mud, the roofs sloping and projecting so as to carry off the rain water.”
Source: De architectura (The Ten Books On Architecture) (~ 15BC), Book II, Chapter I, Sec. 3
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Vitruvius 203
Roman writer, architect and engineer -80–-15 BCRelated quotes

“Writing in English is like throwing mud at a wall.”

Source: De architectura (The Ten Books On Architecture) (~ 15BC), Book II, Chapter VIII, Sec. 18

“During a warm winter rain… the basins of her collarbones collected water.”
Source: The Virgin Suicides

Quoted in "The Other Side of the Hill" - Page 184 - by Basil Henry Liddell Hart - 1948

Hays translation
Suppose that men kill thee, cut thee in pieces, curse thee. What then can these things do to prevent thy mind from remaining pure, wise, sober, just? For instance, if a man should stand by a limpid pure spring, and curse it, the spring never ceases sending up potable water; and if he should cast clay into it or filth, it will speedily disperse them and wash them out, and will not be at all polluted. How then shalt thou possess a perpetual fountain? By forming thyself hourly to freedom conjoined with contentment, simplicity and modesty.
VIII, 51
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII

“Life is made up of marble and mud.”
Source: The House of the Seven Gables (1851), Ch. II : The Little Shop-Window