"The Stones of Venice" by John Ruskin:

"When be build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not
be for present delight nor for 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 these stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor
and wrought substance of them, 'See! This our father did for us.' "