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:

    Each is under the most sacred obligation not to squander the material committed to him, not to sap his strength in folly and vice, and to see at the least that he delivers a product worthy the labor and cost which have been expended on him.
    Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)

    The obstinancy of cleverness and reason is nothing to the obstinancy of folly and inanity.
    Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896)

    It is as often a weakness in the aged to dictate to the young, as it is folly in the young to slight the warnings of the aged.
    H., U.S. women’s magazine contributor. American Ladies Magazine, pp. 230-3 (May 1828)