Leonardo da Vinci Quotes
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Any one who in discussion relies upon authority uses, not his understanding, but rather his memory. Good culture is born of a good disposition; and since the cause is more to be praised than the effect, I will rather praise a good disposition without culture, than good culture without the disposition.
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The sun gives spirit and life to plants and the earth nourishes them with moisture.
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A vase of unbaked clay, when broken, may be remoulded, but not a baked one.
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It is ill to praise, and worse to reprimand in matters that you do not understand.
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Truth here makes Falsehood torment lying tongues.
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He who offends others, does not secure himself.
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Disgrace should be represented upside down, because all her deeds are contrary to God and tend to hell.
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I myself have proved it to be of no small use, when in bed in the dark, to recall in fancy the external details of forms previously studied, or other noteworthy things conceived by subtle speculation; and this is certainly an admirable exercise, and useful for impressing things on the memory.
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That man is of supreme folly who always wants for fear of wanting; and his life flies away while he is still hoping to enjoy the good things which he has with extreme labour acquired.
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The properties of the air are such that it may become condensed or rarefied.
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Such as harm is when it hurts me not, is good which avails me not.
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A shadow may be infinitely dark, and also of infinite degrees of absence of darkness. 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.
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That which was at first bound, cast out and rent by many and various beaters will be respected and honoured, and its precepts will be listened to with reverence and love.
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There will be many who will eagerly and with great care and solicitude follow up a thing, which, if they only knew its malignity, would always terrify them. Of those men, who, the older they grow, the more avaricious they become, whereas, having but little time to stay, they should become more liberal.
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What is fair in men, passes away, but not so in art.
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A bird makes the same use of wings and tail in the air as a swimmer does of his arms and legs in the water.
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The part always has a tendency to reunite with its whole in order to escape from its imperfection.
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Necessity is the theme and the inventress, the eternal curb and law of nature.
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The eye which turns from a white object in the light of the sun and goes into a less fully lighted place will see everything as dark.
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He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss.
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A dark object seen against a bright background will appear smaller than it is. A light object will look larger when it is seen against a background darker than itself.
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Truth was the only daughter of Time.
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One's thoughts turn towards Hope.
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O Time! consumer of all things; O envious age! thou dost destroy all things and devour all things with the relentless teeth of years, little by little in a slow death. Helen, when she looked in her mirror, seeing the withered wrinkles made in her face by old age, wept and wondered why she had twice been carried away.