“From astronomy we find the east, west, south, and north, as well as the theory of the heavens, the equinox, solstice, and courses of the stars. If one has no knowledge of these matters, he will not be able to have any comprehension of the theory of sundials.”

—  Vitruvius , book De architectura

Source: De architectura (The Ten Books On Architecture) (~ 15BC), Book I, Chapter I, Sec. 10

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "From astronomy we find the east, west, south, and north, as well as the theory of the heavens, the equinox, solstice, a…" by Vitruvius?
Vitruvius photo
Vitruvius 203
Roman writer, architect and engineer -80–-15 BC

Related quotes

Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas photo

“From north to south, from east to west.”

Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas (1544–1590) French writer

First Week, Second Day. Compare: "From north to south, from east to west", William Shakespeare, A Winter's Tale, act i. sc. 2.
La Semaine; ou, Création du monde (1578)

Henry David Thoreau photo

“The frontiers are not east or west, north or south, but wherever a man fronts a fact”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/7cncd10.txt (1849), Thursday
Context: The frontiers are not east or west, north or south, but wherever a man fronts a fact, though that fact be his neighbor, there is an unsettled wilderness between him and Canada, between him and the setting sun, or, farther still, between him and it.

Stephen Vincent Benét photo

“The north and the west and the south are good hunting ground, but it is forbidden to go east.”

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)
Context: The north and the west and the south are good hunting ground, but it is forbidden to go east. It is forbidden to go to any of the Dead Places except to search for metal and then he who touches the metal must be a priest or the son of a priest. Afterwards, both the man and the metal must be purified. These are the rules and the laws; they are well made. It is forbidden to cross the great river and look upon the place that was the Place of the Gods — this is most strictly forbidden. We do not even say its name though we know its name. It is there that spirits live, and demons — it is there that there are the ashes of the Great Burning. These things are forbidden — they have been forbidden since the beginning of time.

Cristoforo Colombo photo
W. H. Auden photo

“He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest.”

W. H. Auden (1907–1973) Anglo-American poet

Source: Stop All The Clocks

Edward Carson, Baron Carson photo

“Nothing Ireland—north, south, east, and west—has suffered so much in its history as the broken pledges of British statesmen.”

Edward Carson, Baron Carson (1854–1935) Irish politician, barrister and judge

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1918/apr/16/clause-2-power-by-order-in-council-to#column_320 in the House of Commons (16 April 1918). The Irish Nationalist MP John Dillon interrupted: "We are agreed at last on one thing."

Donald Rumsfeld photo

“We know where they [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat….”

Donald Rumsfeld (1932) U.S. Secretary of Defense

Interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News This Week, March 30, 2003
Context: We know where they [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat.... I would also add, we saw from the air that there were dozens of trucks that went into that facility after the existence of it became public in the press and they moved things out. They dispersed them and took them away. So there may be nothing left. I don't know that. But it's way too soon to know. The exploitation is just starting.

Abd al-Karim Qasim photo
Horace Mann photo

“We put things in order — God does the rest. Lay an iron bar east and west, it is not magnetized. Lay it north and south and it is.”

Horace Mann (1796–1859) American politician

As quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts : Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, both Ancient and Modern (1908) edited by Tryon Edwards

Benjamin Disraeli photo

“It is the initial letters of the four points of the compass that make the word "news," and he must understand that news is that which collies from the North, East, West and South, and if it comes from only one point of the compass, then it is a class publication, and not news.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1855/mar/26/newspaper-stamp-duties-bill in the House of Commons (26 March 1855).
1850s

Related topics