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A shadow will appear dark in proportion to the brilliancy of the light surrounding it and conversely it will be less conspicuous where it is seen against a darker background.
Leonardo da Vinci -
We, by our arts may be called the grandsons of God.
Leonardo da Vinci
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No small hole can so modify the convergence of rays of light as to prevent, at a long distance, the transmission of the true form of the luminous body causing them.
Leonardo da Vinci -
When the thing taken into union is perfectly adapted to that which receives it, the result is delight and pleasure and satisfaction.
Leonardo da Vinci -
Men born in hot countries love the night because it refreshes them and have a horror of light because it burns them; and therefore they are of the colour of night, that is black. And in cold countries it is just the contrary.
Leonardo da Vinci -
To lie is so vile, that even if it were in speaking well of godly things it would take off something from God's grace; and Truth is so excellent, that if it praises but small things they become noble.
Leonardo da Vinci -
A luminous body will appear more brilliant in proportion as it is surrounded by deeper shadow.
Leonardo da Vinci -
Chi non punisce il male comanda che si faccia.
Leonardo da Vinci
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The mind passes in an instant from east to west; and all the great incorporeal things resemble these very closely in speed.
Leonardo da Vinci -
The body which is nearest to the light casts the largest shadow, and why? If an object placed in front of a single light is very close to it you will see that it casts a very large shadow on the opposite wall, and the farther you remove the object from the light the smaller will the image of the shadow become.
Leonardo da Vinci -
Darkness is absence of light. Shadow is diminution of light.
Leonardo da Vinci -
If you wish to make a figure in marble, first make one of clay, and when you have finished it, let it dry and place it in a case which should be large enough, after the figure is taken out of it, to receive also the marble, from which you intend to reveal the figure in imitation of the one in clay.
Leonardo da Vinci -
Those who are in love with practice without knowledge are like the sailor who gets into a ship without rudder or compass and who never can be certain whether he is going. Practice must always be founded on sound theory, and to this Perspective is the guide and the gateway; and without this nothing can be done well in the matter of drawing.
Leonardo da Vinci -
The earth is not in the centre of the Sun's orbit nor at the centre of the universe, but in the centre of its companion elements, and united with them. And any one standing on the moon, when it and the sun are both beneath us, would see this our earth and the element of water upon it just as we see the moon, and the earth would light it as it lights us.
Leonardo da Vinci
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The lover is moved by the beloved object as the senses are by sensual objects; and they unite and become one and the same thing. The work is the first thing born of this union; if the thing loved is base the lover becomes base.
Leonardo da Vinci -
The water you touch in a river is the last of that which has passed, and the first of that which is coming. Thus it is with time present.
Leonardo da Vinci -
Just as iron rusts unless it is used, and water putrifies or, in cold, turns to ice, so our intellect spoils unless it is kept in use.
Leonardo da Vinci -
The bones of the Dead will be seen to govern the fortunes of him who moves them.
Leonardo da Vinci -
Nothing is that which fills no space. If one single point placed in a circle may be the starting point of an infinite number of lines, and the termination of an infinite number of lines, there must be an infinite number of points separable from this point, and these when reunited become one again; whence it follows that the part may be equal to the whole.
Leonardo da Vinci -
Those who fall in love with practice without science are like a sailor who enters a ship without a helm or a compass, and who never can be certain whither he is going.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Observe the light and consider its beauty. Blink your eye and look at it. That which you see was not there at first, and that which was there is there no more.
Leonardo da Vinci -
While I thought I have been learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.
Leonardo da Vinci -
All bodies together, and each by itself, give off to the surrounding air an infinite number of images which are all-pervading and each complete, each conveying the nature, colour and form of the body which produces it.
Leonardo da Vinci -
Men are in error when they lament the flight of time, accusing it of being too swift, and not perceiving that it is sufficient as it passes; but good memory, with which nature has endowed us, causes things long past to seem present.
Leonardo da Vinci