Leonardo Da Vinci Quotes

Drawing is based upon perspective, which is nothing else than a thorough knowledge of the function of the eye.

Fame alone raises herself to Heaven, because virtuous things are in favour with God.

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

Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.

Where there is most feeling, there is the greatest martyrdom.

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

No counsel is more sincere than that given on ships which are in danger.

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

Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood.

A life well used procures a happy death.

A diamond is just a lump of coal that stuck to its job.

Advertisers constantly invent cures to which there is no disease.

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

Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.

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.

He who fears dangers will not perish by them.

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

To be a winner you must want to win but must know of the chance of losing and must not fear of it.

All our knowledge is the offspring of our perceptions.

We should not desire the impossible.

To speak ill of a good person is not truly good, all in all.

The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of.

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

The eye is the window of the human body through which it feels its way and enjoys the beauty of the world.

A good painter is to paint two main things, men and the working of man's mind.

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

Inaction saps the vigor of the mind.

The first object of the painter is to make a flat plane appear as a body in relief and projecting from that plane

It is a far worthier thing to read by the light of experience than to adorn oneself with the labors of others.

The Medici made me and the Medici destroyed me.

Of the original phenomena, light is the most enthralling.

Learn diligence before speedy execution.

The motive power is the cause of all life.

Reprove your friend in secret and praise him openly.

Our body is dependant on Heaven and Heaven on the Spirit.

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

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.

It is useful to constantly observe, note, and consider.

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

Why does the eye see more clearly when asleep than the imagination when awake?

The greater the man's soul, the deeper he loves.

A gray day provides the best light.

O time! swift devourer of all created things!

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

The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.

Lies don't solve problems it just make it worst ... so liars beware

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

My works are the issue of simple and plain experience which is the true mistress.

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

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

For those colours which you wish to be beautiful, always first prepare a pure white ground.

The good painter must paint two things: a person and the essence of his soul.

The vine that has grown old on an old tree falls with the ruin of that tree, and through that bad companionship must perish with it.

I am never weary of being useful ... In serving others I cannot do enough. No labor is sufficient to tire me.

The most beautiful words of love are told in silence for a look.

Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.

The length of a man's outspread arms is equal to his height.

The spirit desires to remain with its body, because, without the organic instruments of that body, it can neither act, nor feel anything.

To lie is vile, to tell truth is excellent, if not noble.

Avoid the precepts of those thinkers whose reasoning is not confirmed by experience.

A long life is a life well spent.

Truth was the only daughter of Time.

Whoever in debate quotes authority uses not intellect, but memory.

It is the infinite alone that cannot be attained, for if it could it would become finite.

To Nature, since it is only by chance that they wear the human

In time and with water, everything changes

Truth was always but the daughter of time.

The soul is content to stay imprisoned in the human body ... for through the eyes all the various things of nature are represented to the soul.

Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature. Necessity is the theme and inventress of nature, her curb and her eternal law.

Ask counsel of him who rules himself well.

The world wouldn't be the world, without trouble.

Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.

Darkness is absence of light. Shadow is diminution of light.

The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard.

The truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior intellects.

Water is the driving force in nature.

Just as iron rusts from disuse, and stagnant water putrefies, or when cold turns to ice, so our intellect wastes unless it is kept in use.

I abhor the supreme folly of those who blame the disciples of nature in defiance of those masters who were themselves her pupils

The eye - which sees all objects reversed - retains the images for some time.

Among the great things which are to be found among us, the being of nothingness is the greatest.

Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments.

Happy will they be who lend ear to the words of the dead.

He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.

We might say that the earth has the spirit of growth; that its flesh is the soil.

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

Depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves.

Most people, if you give them a book, they sniff around on it awhile, then try to eat it.

The moment has no time.

Movement will fail sooner than usefulness.

The lover is drawn by the thing loved, as the sense is by that which it perceives ...

That painter who has no doubts will achieve little.

The color of the object illuminated partakes of the color of that which illuminates it.

Anyone who invokes authors in discussion is not using his intelligence but his memory.

Time stays long enough for those who use it.

As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.

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

A man of supreme folly: his life flies away while he is merely hoping to enjoy it.

He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done.

Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.

Black is like a broken vessel, which is deprived of the capacity to contain anything.