Blowing things out of proportion

[mbarrick]

Replacing the rail.

How about 14:8:11? They came to replace the balcony rail yesterday. The arches built 95 years ago with a Classical 1:1:1 ratio coming out of 2500 years of tradition and a heritage going back to Euclid and Pythagoras now sport a 14:8:11 ratio.

A Harmony of all the Parts in whatsoever Subject it appears, fitted together with such Proportion and Connection, that nothing could be added, diminished or altered, but for the Worse.

--Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti
on beauty in architecture

Things without order, rhythm and harmony go with ill words and ill feelings, but good order goes with courage and self-control.

--Plato, "The Republic"

Proportion itself depends essentially upon the employment of mathematical ratios in the dimensions of a building...No defect is more [glaring] or more unpleasant than want of proportion.

--Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 ed.