Leonardo da Vinci Quotes

Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation... even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.

Strive to preserve your health; and in this you will better succeed in proportion as you keep clear of the physicians, for their drugs are a kind of alchemy concerning which there are no fewer books than there are medicines.

The supreme misfortune is when theory outstrips performance

We must doubt the certainty of everything which passes through the senses, but how much more ought we to doubt things contrary to the senses, such as the existence of God and the soul.

If you are on the side whence the wind is blowing you will see the trees looking much lighter than you would see them on the other sides; and this is due to the fact that the wind turns up the reverse side of the leaves which in all trees is much whiter than the upper side.

When you put your hand in a flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come.

Therefore, O students, study mathematics and do not build without foundations.

Small rooms or dwellings set the mind in the right path, large ones cause it to go astray.

Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel.

The eye which turns from a white object in the light of the sun and goes into a less fully lighted place will see everything as dark.

I love those who can smile in trouble.

The natural desire of good men is knowledge.

Just as iron rusts from disuse... even so does inaction spoil the intellect.

How many emperors and how many princes have lived and died and no record of them remains, and they only sought to gain dominions and riches in order that their fame might be ever-lasting.

The Book of the science of Mechanics must precede the Book of useful inventions.

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.

Wood feeds the fire which burns it.

Lying on a feather mattress or quilt will not bring you renown.

In the days of thy youth seek to obtain that which shall compensate the losses of thy old age.

In time and with water, everything changes.

Very great charm of shadow and light is to be found in the faces of those who sit in the doors of dark houses. The eye of the spectator sees that part of the face which is in shadow lost in the darkness of the house, and that part of the face which is lit draws its brilliancy from the splendour of the sky. From this intensification of light and shade the face gains greatly in relief and beauty by showing the subtlest shadows in the light part and the subtlest lights in the dark part.

Thou, O God, dost sell us all good things at the price of labor.

Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.

I have always felt it is my destiny to build a machine that would allow man to fly.

Many will think they may reasonably blame me by alleging that my proofs are opposed to the authority of certain men held in the highest reverence by their inexperienced judgments; not considering that my works are the issue of pure and simple experience.

One painter ought never to imitate the manner of any other; because in that case he cannot be called the child of nature, but the grandchild. It is always best to have recourse to nature, which is replete with such abundance of objects, than to the productions of other masters, who learnt everything from her.

Nature is so delightful and abundant in its variations that among trees of the same kind there would not be found one which nearly resembles another, and not only the plants as a whole, but among their branches, leaves, and fruit, will not be found one which is precisely like another.

Every man at three years old is half his height

O Time! consumer of all things; O envious age! thou dost destroy all things and devour all things with the relentless teeth of years, little by little in a slow death. Helen, when she looked in her mirror, seeing the withered wrinkles made in her face by old age, wept and wondered why she had twice been carried away.

It vexes me greatly that having to earn my living has forced me to interrupt the work and to attend to small matters.

In life beauty perishes, but not in art.

When you look at a wall spotted with stains...you may discover a resemblance to various landscapes, beautiful with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees. Or again, you may see battles and figures in action, or strange faces and costumes, and an endless variety of objects which you could reduce to complete and well-drawn figures.

Great love is born of great knowledge of the thing that is loved, and if you do not know it, you can love it little or not at all.

The days are long enough for those who use them.

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.

Learning acquired in youth arrests the evil of old age.

Wherever good fortune enters, envy lays siege to the place and attacks it; and when it departs, sorrow and repentance remain behind.

The worst evil which can befall the artist is that his work should appear good in his own eyes.

The eye, the window of the soul, is the chief means whereby the understanding can most fully and abundantly appreciate the infinite works of Nature; and the ear is second.

Who sows virtue reaps honor.

Those who, in debate, appeal to their qualifications, argue from memory, not from understanding.

Advertisers constantly invent cures to which there is no disease.

Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience.

Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.

Ask advice of him who governs himself well.

Not to appreciate life, all of life, is not to deserve it.

Wisdom is the daughter of experience

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.