Leonardo da Vinci Quotes

Man's external form, marvellously constructed, is not much as compared with the divine soul that dwells inside that structure.

Fire is to represent truth because it destroys all sophistry and lies; and the mask is for lying and falsehood which conceal truth.

A wave is never found alone, but is mingled with as many other waves as there are uneven places in the object where the said wave is produced.

He who does not understand the supreme certainty of mathematics is wallowing in confusion.

Ask counsel of him who rules himself well.

Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.

Sculptured figures which appear in motion, will, in their standing position, actually look as if they were falling forward.

Truth is so excellent, that if it praises but small things they become noble.

Most men are of naught more use in their lives but as machines for turning food into sh*t.

The grave will fall in upon him who digs it.

Fire destroys falsehood, that is sophistry, and restores truth, driving out darkness.

Whatever you think matters - doesn't. Follow this rule, and you will add decades to your life. Rodger Rosenblatt As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.

One day the world will look upon research upon animals as it now looks upon research on human beings.

It is better to imitate ancient than modern work.

Learning is the only thing that never disappoints us.

You must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.

Who sows virtue ought to reap honour.

There is no object so large but that at a great distance from the eye it does not appear smaller than a smaller object near.

The desire to know is natural to good men.

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.

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.

If you put on more garments, the cold cannot reach you. Similarly, increase your patience and concentration and even great injuries cannot vex your mind.

The part always has a tendency to reunite with its whole in order to escape from its imperfection.

Beauty perishes in life, but is immortal in art.

People of higher talent work, even if they seem to do nothing

I have discovered that a screw-shaped device such as this, if it is well made from starched linen, will rise in the air if turned quickly.

O time! swift devourer of all created things!

All thoughts start from emotions.

Poor is the man who desires a lot

To enjoy - to love a thing for its own sake and for no other reason.

The mole has very small eyes and it always lives under ground; and it lives as long as it is in the dark but when it comes into the light it dies immediately, because it becomes known;--and so it is with lies.

My body will not be a tomb for other creatures.

There are many occasions when the muscles that form the lips of the mouth move the lateral muscles that are joined to them, and there are an equal number of occasions when these lateral muscles move the lips of this mouth, replacing it where it cannot return of itself, because the function of muscle is to pull and not to push except in the case of the genitals and the tongue.

Even the richest soil, if left uncultivated will produce the rankest weeds.

Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places.

He turns not back who is bound to a star.

How painting surpasses all human works by reason of the subtle possibilities which it contains.

To discover the soul living in somebody's body, we watch the surrounding of the body, and if it's messy and disordered, so is the soul.

If you throw a stone in a pond... the waves which strike against the shores are thrown back towards the spot where the stone struck; and on meeting other waves they never intercept each other's course... In a small pond one and the same stroke gives birth to many motions of advance and recoil.

Every action done by nature is done in the shortest way.

He who has access to the fountain does not go to the water-pot.

A deaf and dumb person who sees two men in conversation - may nevertheless understand from the attitudes and gestures of the speakers, how well their discussion is getting along.

The light and heat of the universe comes from the sun, and its cold and darkness from the withdrawal of the sun.

I wish to work miracles.

Truth was the only daughter of Time.

Our life is made by the death of others.

Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!

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.