50 Arch Quotes about the Magnificent Form

By Norbert Juma

Master quote curator and editor on a mission to inspire

Published July 6, 2023

Marvel at nature, human ingenuity, engineering, and artistic expression with these arch quotes.

The arch is an essential element of architecture, which adds functionality and aesthetic value to a structure.

The term arch also symbolizes different aspects of society and culture.

Check out the arch quotes below to learn more about these inspirational structures.

Architectural Wonder

As stated above, the arch is a structural marvel.

It has been serving humanity since ancient times.

Arch has revolutionized the way we have been building structures.

Due to its curved shape, the arch doesn’t require different supporting columns.

This helps transfer the weight and distribute it along its curve.

These features allow engineers to build structures with expansive openings.

Historical and Cultural Significance

Most of the architectural wonders around the world feature arches.

These buildings have shaped the culture and history of different civilizations.

For instance, ancient Rome’s triumphal arches celebrate military victories.

Apart from this, the arch is also a popular element in Islamic architecture.

The horseshoe arch is an iconic aspect representing Islamic architecture’s spiritual and cultural identity.

On the other hand, the arches located at European cathedrals serve as a gateway to the divine.

This reflects the religious fervor associated with the Middle Ages.

Symbolism and Aesthetics

In addition to the practical benefits of an arch, it also holds a profound aesthetic and symbolic significance.

The graceful curvature relates to strength, unity, and harmony.

Throughout the centuries, engineers and architects have taken advantage of the aesthetic appeal of an arch.

It not only helps to build structures that are visually captivating but also adds exceptional strength to the structure.

Unmatched Endurance

Even after centuries, the arch is still considered an enduring element.

It continues to assist us even when we are building modern structures.

Engineers and architects seek inspiration from historic arch designs and implement them using modern materials.

The strength and durability of the arch can be easily witnessed in modern structures like:

Dams
Bridges
Stadiums
Skyscrapers
Other contemporary architectural designs

Top 10 Arch Quotes

Now let’s check out our compilation’s top 10 best arch quotes.

1. “Without stones, there is no arch.” — Marco Polo

2. “It’s always good to have a story arch.” — Margot Robbie

3. “All experience is an arch, to build upon.” — Henry Adams

4. “I’ll bridge these hills with graceful arches.” — Frank Lloyd Wright

5. “Outside the arch, always there seemed another arch.” — E. M. Forster

6. “I didn’t have any doubts about joining Arch Enemy.” — Alissa White-Gluz

7. “London really is my city; I was born within a breath of Marble Arch.” — Ben Fogle

8. “A lot of period dramas can appear quite arch to most people, stuffy.” — Emily Blunt

9. “I loved playing Anne Bancroft because she was so wonderfully arch.” — Marcia Harden

10. “Why do you speak to me of the stones? It is only the arch that matters to me.” — Kublai Khan

Arch Quotes Related to Strength

Here are the arch quotes closely related to strength, finding inner power, and conquering challenges.

11. “Back of every creation, supporting it like an arch, is faith.” — Henry Miller

12. “Any pose that is an arch will open the chest cavity and is excellent for energizing the body.” — Mandy Ingber

13. “An arch consists of two weaknesses which, leaning one against the other, make a strength.” — Leonardo da Vinci

14. “All experience is an arch where through gleams that untravelled world whose margin fades forever and forever when I move.” — Alfred Lord Tennyson

15. “It’s iconic; it’s Wembley. When I go running up Primrose Hill, you can see the arch. It’s a great thing, and it’s a proud spot for London.” — George Groves

16. “The Romans were not inventors of the supporting arch, but its extended use in vaults and intersecting barrel shapes and domes is theirs.” — Harry Seidler

17. “We’re still living with the old paradigm of age as an arch. That’s the old metaphor: You’re born, you peak at midlife and decline into decrepitude.” — Jane Fonda

18. “All art is dependent on technology because it’s a human endeavor, so even when you’re using charcoal on a wall or designed the Proscenium arch, that’s technology.” — George Lucas

19. “I feel like we all live in a pale imitation of celebrity. With Facebook, we choose a photo that is not too good a photo – we’re more arch than that. We’re our own celebrity publicists.” — Jess Walter

20. “You say to a brick, ‘What do you want, brick?’ And Brick says to you, ‘I like an arch.’ And you say to brick, ‘Look, I want one, too, but arches are expensive, and I can use a concrete lintel.’ And then you say: ‘What do you think of that, brick?’ Brick says: ‘I like an arch.’” — Louis Kahn

Arch Quotes Related to Intellectual Side

Discover the power of intellectual growth, fueled by curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge, through these inspiring Arch quotes.

21. “Human society is like an arch, kept from falling by the mutual pressure of its parts.” — Seneca Younger

22. “Suddenly, the clouds seem high above us. They’re moving over us in an arch, circling the planet.” — Lauren DeStefano

23. “It has well been said that the arch-flatterer, with whom all petty flatterers have intelligence, is a man’s self.” — Francis Bacon

24. “We’re built of contradictions, all of us. It’s those opposing forces that give us strength, like an arch, each block pressing the next.” — Mark Lawrence

25. “Our foreign policy needs to support our energy, economic, defense, and domestic policies. It all falls within the arch of national interest.” — Chuck Hagel

26. “His are the quiet steeps of dreamland, The waters of no-more-pain; His ram’s bell rings ’neath an arch of stars, “Rest, rest, and rest again.” — Walter de La Mare

27. “If an architect wants to strengthen a decrepit arch, he increases the load laid upon it, for thereby the parts are joined more firmly together.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

28. “Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation.” — Barack Obama

29. “Hence when lightning fires the arch of heaven, and thunders rock the ground, when furious whirlwinds rend the howling air, and ocean, groaning from his lowest bed, heaves his tempestuous billows to the sky; amid the mighty uproar, while below the nations tremble, Shakespeare looks abroad from some high cliff, superior, and enjoys the elemental war.” — Mark Akenside

30. “All over France, in every city, there stand cathedrals like this one, triumphant monuments of the past. They tower over the homes of our people like mighty guardians, keeping alive the invincible faith of the Christian. Every arch, every column, every statue is a carved leaf out of our history, a book in stone, glorifying the spirit of France.” — Sonya Levien

Arch Quotes on Movement and Connection

These various quotes reflect the endless world of arches.

31. “Nothing is improved by anger unless it be the arch of a cat’s back.” — Charles Spurgeon

32. “Up from the sea, the wild north wind is blowing under the sky’s gray arch.” — John Greenleaf Whittier

33. “Zuzana arched an eyebrow. She was a master of the eyebrow arch, and Karou envied her for it.” — Laini Taylor

34. “There is a chasm between knowledge and ignorance which the arches of science can never span.” — Henry David Thoreau

35. “When it suits him, the peacock will face you. Then you will see in a green-bronze arch around him a galaxy of gazing, haloed suns.” — Flannery O’Connor

36. “My grandmother’s feet had been bound when she was two years old. Her mother…first wound a piece of white cloth about twenty feet long round her feet, bending all the toes except the big toe inward and under the sole. Then she placed a large stone on top to crush the arch.” — Jung Chang

37. “If the height of the heel is the same as the length of your foot, it starts to look wrong. And if the heel is positioned badly on the sole, you get into ballerina territory, where the body is pushed into a very strange posture. You can exaggerate the arch only so much.” — Christian Louboutin

38. “When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act like a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon.” — Hayley Williams

39. “As an artist, Nature splashes color across the vast canvas of the sky with the radiance and splendor of sunrise and sunset. She arches rainbows against the passing storm, creates flowers and foliage, sets autumn woods on fire with the beauty of turning leaves, and touches mountaintops with snow crystals.” — Wilferd Peterson

40. “It was a very aged, ghostly place; the church had been built many hundreds of years ago and had once had a convent or monastery attached; for arches in ruins, remains of oriel windows, and fragments of blackened walls, were yet standing, while other portions of the old building, which had crumbled away and fallen down, were mingled with the churchyard earth and overgrown with grass as if they too claimed a burying-place and sought to mix their ashes with the dust of men.” — Charles Dickens

Famous Name and Place Arches

Here are some arch quotes about places and famous structures.

41. “I love as you come into Paris, you’ve got the Arch de Triomphe and all that crazy traffic.” — Luke Goss

42. “I’d lived near Marble Arch in London, and it was fantastic to be surrounded by fields and trees.” — Ben Fogle

43. “Behind the proscenium arch, you can’t always hear what people in the audience are saying.” — Billy Connolly

44. “I regret the negative press that has come with my climb of the Delicate Arch, but I think there is a bigger picture.” — Dean Potter

45. “The majority of my background is a multi-camera format, which is very broad and a very arch perception of reality.” — Matt LeBlanc

46. “I remember my dad ringing me up and giving me my GCSE results when I was at Thorp Arch for pre-season training.” — James Milner

47. “If I’m ever feeling uninspired, all I have to do is go see Exodus or Arch Enemy, and think, ‘Oh yeah, that’s what we’re doing this for.’” — Kerry King

48. “The time of a cigarette is a parenthesis, and if it is shared, you are both in that parenthesis. It’s like a proscenium arch for a dialogue.” — John Berger

49. “Tyria’s a big world. We get a grand tour of ‘Ghosts of Ascalon.’ We’re in Divinity’s Reach; we’re in Lion’s Arch; we’re in Ebonhawke; we’re in the Dragon’s Land; we’re in Ascalon.” — Jeff Grubb

50. “I was at St. Louis’s very first tea party and stood across the mighty Mississippi on the Arch steps with a bunch of wide-eyed, virgin protesters who were just as shocked as I was to see the number of people who had assembled.” — Dana Loesch