Folly

Folly

In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs. In the original use of the word, these buildings had no other use, but from the 19th to 20th centuries the term was also applied to highly decorative buildings which had secondary practical functions such as housing, sheltering or business use.

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Famous quotes containing the word folly:

    That wealth and greatness are often regarded with the respect and admiration which are due only to wisdom and virtue; and that the contempt, of which vice and folly are the only proper objects, is often unjustly bestowed upon poverty and weakness, has been the complaint of moralists in all ages.
    Adam Smith (1723–1790)

    If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
    William Blake (1757–1827)

    Experience. The wisdom that enables us to recognise in an undesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already embraced.
    Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)