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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.
Leonardo da Vinci -
He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.
Leonardo da Vinci
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To speak well of a base man is much the same as speaking ill of a good man.
Leonardo da Vinci -
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.
Leonardo da Vinci -
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.
Leonardo da Vinci -
He who walks straight rarely falls.
Leonardo da Vinci -
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.
Leonardo da Vinci -
The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Patience serves us against insults precisely as clothes do against the cold. For if you multiply your garments as the cold increases, that cold cannot hurt you; in the same way increase your patience under great offences, and they cannot hurt your feelings.
Leonardo da Vinci -
The part always has a tendency to reunite with its whole in order to escape from its imperfection.
Leonardo da Vinci -
The properties of the air are such that it may become condensed or rarefied.
Leonardo da Vinci -
The variety of colour in objects cannot be discerned at a great distance, excepting in those parts which are directly lighted up by the solar rays.
Leonardo da Vinci -
One who by himself is mild enough and void of all offence will become terrible and fierce by being in bad company, and will most cruelly take the life of many men, and would kill many more if they were not hindered by bodies having no soul, that have come out of caverns - that is, breastplates of iron.
Leonardo da Vinci -
Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature.
Leonardo da Vinci
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That is not riches, which may be lost; virtue is our true good and the true reward of its possessor. That cannot be lost; that never deserts us, but when life leaves us. As to property and external riches, hold them with trembling; they often leave their possessor in contempt, and mocked at for having lost them.
Leonardo da Vinci -
Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.
Leonardo da Vinci -
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.
Leonardo da Vinci -
I have seen motions of the air so furious that they have carried, mixed up in their course, the largest trees of the forest and whole roofs of great palaces, and I have seen the same fury bore a hole with a whirling movement digging out a gravel pit, and carrying gravel, sand and water more than half a mile through the air.
Leonardo da Vinci -
There will be many which will increase in their destruction.
Leonardo da Vinci -
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.
Leonardo da Vinci
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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.
Leonardo da Vinci -
Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitude. Pharisees - that is to say, friars.
Leonardo da Vinci -
Light is the chaser away of darkness. Shade is the obstruction of light. Primary light is that which falls on objects and causes light and shade. And derived lights are those portions of a body which are illuminated by the primary light. A primary shadow is that side of a body on which the light cannot fall.
Leonardo da Vinci -
If the Lord - who is the light of all things - vouchsafe to enlighten me, I will treat of Light; wherefore I will divide the present work into 3 Parts... Linear Perspective, The Perspective of Colour, The Perspective of Disappearance.
Leonardo da Vinci