Virgil’s Aeneid
Excellence is the way to the stars | Macte virtute, sic itur ad astra.
-Virgil, Aeneid
Vitruvius’ Ten Books on Architecture
A harmonious design requires that nothing be added or taken away.
-Vitruvius
Agesander, et al’s Laocoön & His Sons
It has long been admired for the realism of its anatomy and for the variety of expression in the faces and figures, one beaten, one suffering, and one perhaps escaping.
Praxiteles’ Aphrodite of Knidos
Praxiteles blends humanity with divinity perfectly, portraying her divinity without being distanced by grandeur.
Ovid’s Metamorphoses
A burden which is done well becomes light / Leve fit, quod bene fertur, onus
Pont du Gard, France
The aqueducts built across Europe are among the most important symbols of the Roman Empire.
The Xunzi
The person attempting to travel two roads at once will get nowhere.
-Xunzi
Bhagavad Gita
There is more happiness in doing one’s own (path) without excellence than in doing another’s (path) well.
-The Bhagavad Gita
The Parthenon, Athens
Earth proudly wears the Parthenon As the best gem upon her zone.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Myron’s Discobolus (Discus Thrower)
Capturing Greek ideals about proportion, harmony, rhythm and balance.
