Leonardo da Vinci Quotes

To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another; and not only among the plants, but among the boughs, the leaves and the fruits, you will not find one which is exactly similar to another.

Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.

Each man is always in the middle of the surface of the earth and under the zenith of his own hemisphere, and over the centre of the earth.

The Medici created and destroyed me.

Painting is concerned with all the 10 attributes of sight; which are: Darkness, Light, Solidity and Colour, Form and Position, Distance and Propinquity, Motion and Rest.

I have wasted my hours.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

The mind of the painter must resemble a mirror, which always takes the colour of the object it reflects and is completely occupied by the images of as many objects as are in front of it.

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.

Experience does not err. Only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power.

Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.

The human bird shall take his first flight, filling the world with amazement, all writings with his fame, and bringing eternal glory to the nest whence he sprang.

The length of a man’s outspread arms is equal to his height.

All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.

Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!

The senses are of the earth, the reason stands apart from them in contemplation.

The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.

Water is the driving force of all nature.

There are four Powers: memory and intellect, desire and covetousness. The two first are mental and the others sensual. The three senses: sight, hearing and smell cannot well be prevented; touch and taste not at all.

The truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior intellects.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.

All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part.

The beginnings and ends of shadow lie between the light and darkness and may be infinitely diminished and infinitely increased. Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow.

Good men by nature, wish to know. I know that many will call this useless work… men who desire nothing but material riches and are absolutely devoid of that of wisdom, which is the food and only true riches of the mind.

Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature. Necessity is the theme and inventress of nature, her curb and her eternal law.

Our life is made by the death of others.

Time abides long enough for those who make use of it.

Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.

He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.

Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments.

Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.

I have always felt it is my destiny to build a machine that would allow man to fly.

You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand.

People talk to people who perceive nothing, who have open eyes and see nothing; they shall talk to them and receive no answer; they shall adore those who have ears and hear nothing; they shall burn lamps for those who do not see.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.

Knowledge of the past and of the places of the earth is the ornament and food of the mind of man.

The divisions of Perspective are 3, as used in drawing; of these, the first includes the diminution in size of opaque objects; the second treats of the diminution and loss of outline in such opaque objects; the third, of the diminution and loss of colour at long distances.

Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.

Medicine is the restoration of discordant elements; sickness is the discord of the elements infused into the living body.

He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.

Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.

Learning never exhausts the mind.

Who sows virtue reaps honor.

There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see.

It is better to imitate ancient than modern work.

He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.

Weight, force and casual impulse, together with resistance, are the four external powers in which all the visible actions of mortals have their being and their end.

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.

Science is the captain, and practice the soldiers.

Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

How many emperors and how many princes have lived and died and no record of them remains, and they only sought to gain dominions and riches in order that their fame might be ever-lasting.