The Seven Lamps of Architecture

Therefore, when we build,
let us think that we build forever.
Let it not be for present delight,
nor present use alone;
let it be such work
as our descendants will thank us for,
and let us think,
as we lay stone on stone,
that a time is to come
when those stones will be held sacred
because our hands have touched them,
and that men will say
as they look upon the labour
and wrought substance of them,
“See! This our fathers did for us.”

John Ruskin
“The Seven Lamps of Architecture” (1849)