Leonardo da Vinci Quotes
-
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.
-
He who does not punish evil commands that it be done.
-
I ask how far away the eye can discern a non-luminous body, as, for instance, a mountain. It will be very plainly visible if the sun is behind it; and could be seen at a greater or less distance according to the sun's place in the sky.
-
Such as harm is when it hurts me not, is good which avails me not.
-
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.
-
The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.
-
He who offends others, does not secure himself.
-
What is fair in men, passes away, but not so in art.
-
To speak well of a base man is much the same as speaking ill of a good man.
-
The properties of the air are such that it may become condensed or rarefied.
-
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.
-
The part always has a tendency to reunite with its whole in order to escape from its imperfection.
-
He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss.
-
The sun gives spirit and life to plants and the earth nourishes them with moisture.
-
He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.
-
Truth here makes Falsehood torment lying tongues.
-
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.
-
Truth was the only daughter of Time.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Painting embraces and contains within itself all the things which nature produces or which results from the fortuitous actions of men... he is but a poor master who makes only a single figure well.
-
One's thoughts turn towards Hope.
-
Of several luminous bodies of equal size and brilliancy and at an equal distance, that will look the largest which is surrounded by the darkest background.