A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law, which instrument it is within the capacity of man to reproduce with all its movements, but not with a corresponding degree of strength, though it is deficient only in the power of maintaining equilibrium. We may therefore say that such an instrument constructed by man is lacking in nothing except the life of the bird, and this life must needs be supplied from that of man.
Leonardo da VinciIn rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time.
Leonardo da VinciPatience 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 offenses, and they cannot hurt your feelings.
Leonardo da VinciYou must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.
Leonardo da Vinci