Leonardo da Vinci Quotes
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Man has much power of discourse which for the most part is vain and false; animals have but little, but it is useful and true, and a small truth is better than a great lie.
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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.
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Darkness is absence of light. Shadow is diminution of light.
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Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than with the imagination being awake?
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Chi non punisce il male comanda che si faccia.
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Shadow is the diminution alike of light and of darkness, and stands between darkness and light.
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Life well spent is long.
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The point, being indivisible, occupies no space. That which occupies no space is nothing. The limiting surface of one thing is the beginning of another.
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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.
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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.
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When the thing taken into union is perfectly adapted to that which receives it, the result is delight and pleasure and satisfaction.
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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.
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The bones of the Dead will be seen to govern the fortunes of him who moves them.
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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.
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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.
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We, by our arts may be called the grandsons of God.
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Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience.
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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.
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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.
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Men will deal rude blows to that which is the cause of their life:-They will thrash the grain.
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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.
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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.
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Men standing in opposite hemispheres will converse and deride each other and embrace each other, and understand each other's language.
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A man was desired to rise from bed, because the sun was already risen. To which he replied: 'If I had as far to go, and as much to do as he has, I should be risen by now; but having but a little way to go, I shall not rise yet.'