Leonardo da Vinci Quotes And Sayings

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, more commonly Leonardo da Vinci or simply Leonardo, was an Italian polymath. He has been variously called the father of palaeontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter and tank, he epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal. Many historians and scholars regard Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the “Universal Genius” or “Renaissance Man”, an individual of “unquenchable curiosity” and “feverishly inventive imagination”. Today, Leonardo is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived.

As A Well-spent Day Brings Happy Sleep, So A Life Well Spent Brings Happy Death.

Our Life Is Made By The Death Of Others.

Art Is Never Finished, Only Abandoned.

Tears Come From The Heart And Not From The Brain.

While I Thought That I Was Learning How To Live, I Have Been Learning How To Die.

Nothing Strengthens Authority So Much As Silence.

It Had Long Since Come To My Attention That People Of Accomplishment Rarely Sat Back And Let Things Happen To Them. They Went Out And Happened To Things.

You Can Have No Dominion Greater Or Less Than That Over Yourself.

You Do Ill If You Praise, But Worse If You Censure, What You Do Not Understand.

For Once You Have Tasted Flight You Will Walk The Earth With Your Eyes Turned Skywards, For There You Have Been And There You Will Long To Return.

Blinding Ignorance Does Mislead Us. O! Wretched Mortals, Open Your Eyes!

Who Sows Virtue Reaps Honor.

I Love Those Who Can Smile In Trouble, Who Can Gather Strength From Distress, And Grow Brave By Reflection. 'Tis The Business Of Little Minds To Shrink, But They Whose Heart Is Firm, And Whose Conscience Approves Their Conduct, Will Pursue Their Principles Unto Death.

Although Nature Commences With Reason And Ends In Experience It Is Necessary For Us To Do The Opposite, That Is To Commence With Experience And From This To Proceed To Investigate The Reason.

I Have Been Impressed With The Urgency Of Doing. Knowing Is Not Enough; We Must Apply. Being Willing Is Not Enough; We Must Do.

Common Sense Is That Which Judges The Things Given To It By Other Senses.

Time Stays Long Enough For Anyone Who Will Use It.

In Rivers, The Water That You Touch Is The Last Of What Has Passed And The First Of That Which Comes; So With Present Time.

He Who Is Fixed To A Star Does Not Change His Mind.

The Smallest Feline Is A Masterpiece.

Simplicity Is The Ultimate Sophistication.

He Who Wishes To Be Rich In A Day Will Be Hanged In A Year.

Beyond A Doubt Truth Bears The Same Relation To Falsehood As Light To Darkness.

It's Easier To Resist At The Beginning Than At The End.

There Are Three Classes Of People: Those Who See, Those Who See When They Are Shown, Those Who Do Not See.

Poor Is The Pupil Who Does Not Surpass His Master.

Intellectual Passion Drives Out Sensuality.

Human Subtlety Will Never Devise An Invention More Beautiful, More Simple Or More Direct Than Does Nature Because In Her Inventions Nothing Is Lacking, And Nothing Is Superfluous.

Painting Is Concerned With All The 10 Attributes Of Sight; Which Are: Darkness, Light, Solidity And Colour, Form And Position, Distance And Propinquity, Motion And Rest.

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.

Water Is The Driving Force Of All Nature.

All Knowledge Which Ends In Words Will Die As Quickly As It Came To Life, With The Exception Of The Written Word: Which Is Its Mechanical Part.

Time Abides Long Enough For Those Who Make Use Of It.

Man And Animals Are In Reality Vehicles And Conduits Of Food, Tombs Of Animals, Hostels Of Death, Coverings That Consume, Deriving Life By The Death Of Others.

To Such An Extent Does Nature Delight And Abound In Variety That Among Her Trees There Is Not One Plant To Be Found Which Is Exactly Like Another; And Not Only Among The Plants, But Among The Boughs, The Leaves And The Fruits, You Will Not Find One Which Is Exactly Similar To Another.

The Natural Desire Of Good Men Is Knowledge.

Science Is The Captain, And Practice The Soldiers.

A Beautiful Body Perishes, But A Work Of Art Dies Not.

Medicine Is The Restoration Of Discordant Elements; Sickness Is The Discord Of The Elements Infused Into The Living Body.

I Have Found That, In The Composition Of The Human Body As Compared With The Bodies Of Animals, The Organs Of Sense Are Duller And Coarser. Thus, It Is Composed Of Less Ingenious Instruments, And Of Spaces Less Capacious For Receiving The Faculties Of Sense.

Men Of Lofty Genius When They Are Doing The Least Work Are Most Active.

Marriage Is Like Putting Your Hand Into A Bag Of Snakes In The Hope Of Pulling Out An Eel.

Where The Spirit Does Not Work With The Hand, There Is No Art.

The Poet Ranks Far Below The Painter In The Representation Of Visible Things, And Far Below The Musician In That Of Invisible Things.

Anyone Who Conducts An Argument By Appealing To Authority Is Not Using His Intelligence; He Is Just Using His Memory.

The Human Foot Is A Masterpiece Of Engineering And A Work Of Art.

Where There Is Shouting, There Is No True Knowledge.

I Have Offended God And Mankind Because My Work Didn't Reach The Quality It Should Have.

He Who Loves Practice Without Theory Is Like The Sailor Who Boards Ship Without A Rudder And Compass And Never Knows Where He May Cast.

Iron Rusts From Disuse; Water Loses Its Purity From Stagnation... Even So Does Inaction Sap The Vigor Of The Mind.