Leonardo da Vinci Quotes

The Medici made me and the Medici destroyed me.

I am not poor. Poor are those who desire many things.

No human investigation can claim to be scientific if it doesn't pass the test of mathematical proof.

Test knowledge through experience, be prepared to make mistakes, and be persistent about it.

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

Especially learn how to see.

He who never puts his trust in any man will never be deceived.

A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.

If you call painting dumb poetry, the painter may call poetry blind painting.

Just as a well-filled day brings blessed sleep, so a well-employed life brings a blessed death.

The Bactrian have two humps; the Arabian one only. They are swift in battle and most useful to carry burdens. This animal is extremely observant of rule and measure, for it will not move if it has a greater weight than it is used to, and if it is taken too far it does the same, and suddenly stops and so the merchants are obliged to lodge there.

Avoid studies of which the result dies with the worker.

Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.

There are many kinds of beauty as people who possess it.

Just as eating against one's will is injurious to health, so studying without a liking for it spoils the memory, and it retains nothing it takes in.

It's easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.

There is no higher or lower knowledge, but one only, flowing out of experimentation.

Nature alone is the master of true genius.

Who would believe that so small a space could contain the images of all the universe?

O speculators about perpetual motion, how many vain chimeras have you created in the like quest? Go and take your place with the seekers after gold.

Study me, reader, if you delight in me, because on very few occasions shall I return to the world, and because the patience for this profession is found in very few, and only in those who wish to compose things anew. Come, oh men, to see the miracles that such studies will disclose to nature.

It's not enough that you believe what you see. You must also understand what you see.

Any color is more distinctly seen when opposed to its contrary: thus, black on white, blear near yellow, green near red, and so on.

It is ordained that to the ambitious, who derive no satisfaction from the gifts of life and the beauty of the world, life shall be a cause of suffering, and they shall possess neither the profit nor the beauty of the world.

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.

Nothing is so much to be feared as Evil Report.

When Fortune comes, seize her in front with a sure hand, because behind she is bald.

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.

Motion is created by the destruction of balance.

Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.

A clever man without wisdom is like a beautiful flower without fragrance.

Painting is concerned with the ten things you can see: these are darkness and brightness, substance and color, form and place, remoteness and nearness, movement and rest.

Experience never misleads; what you are misled by is only your judgment, and this misleads you by anticipating results from experience of a kind that is not produced by your experiments.

Given the cause nature produces the effect in the briefest manner that it can employ.

Old age takes in part savoury wisdom for its food - see to that your old age will not lack in nourishment.

People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life.

One's thoughts turn towards Hope.

Inaction saps the vigor of the mind.

O neglectful Nature, wherefore art thou thus partial, becoming to some of thy children a tender and benignant mother, to others a most cruel and ruthless stepmother? I see thy children given into slavery to others without ever receiving any benefit, and in lieu of any reward for the services they have done for them they are repaid by the severest punishments.

A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not.

I'm not contented to capture the world. I want to change it.

The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any reason, is like a mirror which copies every thing placed in front of it without being conscious of their existence.

Shadow is the diminution alike of light and of darkness, and stands between darkness and light.

I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand.

Constancy does not begin, but is that which perseveres.

It should not be hard for you to stop sometimes and look into the stains of walls, or ashes of a fire, or clouds, or mud or like places, in which...you may find really marvellous ideas.

The acquisition of knowledge is always of use to the intellect, because it may thus drive out useless things and retain the good. For nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known.

Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.