Leonardo da Vinci Quotes

367 Sourced Quotes

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

Leonardo da Vinci
A man was desired to rise from bed, because the sun was already risen. To which he replied: "If I had as far to go, and as much to do as he has, I should be risen by now; but having but a little way to go, I shall not rise yet."

Leonardo da Vinci
Things severed shall be united and shall acquire of themselves such virtue that they shall restore to men their lost memory:—That is the papyrus sheets, which are formed out of several strips and preserve the memory of the thoughts and deeds of men.

Leonardo da Vinci
To manage the large mould make a model of the small mould, make a small room in proportion.

Leonardo da Vinci
All sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of Experience, the mother of all Knowledge.

Leonardo da Vinci
Men are in error when they lament the flight of time, accusing it of being too swift, and not perceiving that it is sufficient as it passes; but good memory, with which nature has endowed us, causes things long past to seem present.

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

Leonardo da Vinci
The knowledge of past times and of the places on the earth is both an ornament and nutriment to the human mind.

Leonardo da Vinci
That which was at first bound, cast out and rent by many and various beaters will be respected and honoured, and its precepts will be listened to with reverence and love.

Leonardo da Vinci
Many will there be who will give up work and labour and poverty of life and goods, and will go to live among wealth in splendid buildings, declaring that this is the way to make themselves acceptable to God.

Leonardo da Vinci
The false interpreters of nature declare that quicksilver is the common seed of every metal, not remembering that nature varies the seed according to the variety of the things she desires to produce in the world.

Leonardo da Vinci
Where there is most feeling, there is the greatest martyrdom.

Leonardo da Vinci
Science, knowledge of the things that are possible present and past; prescience, knowledge of the things which may come to pass.

Leonardo da Vinci
When you have drawn the same thing so many times that it seems that you know it by heart try to do it without the model; but having a tracing made of the model upon a thin piece of smooth glass and lay this upon the drawing you have made without the model.... where you find that you have erred bear it in mind in order not to make the mistake again.... if you cannot procure smooth glass to make a tracing... take a piece of very fine parchment well oiled and then dried, and when you have used it for for one drawing you can wipe this out with a sponge and do a second.

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

Leonardo da Vinci
The solar rays will kindle fire on the earth, by which a thing that is under the sky will be set on fire, and, being reflected by some obstacle, it will bend downwards.

Leonardo da Vinci
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, who is the one true mistress. These rules are sufficient to enable you to know the true from the false — and this aids men to look only for things that are possible and with due moderation — and not to wrap yourself in ignorance, a thing which can have no good result, so that in despair you would give yourself up to melancholy.

Leonardo da Vinci
Lust is the cause of generation
Appetite is the support of life
Fear or timidity is the prolongation of life, and
Fraud the preservation of its instruments.

Leonardo da Vinci
If you take as your pattern the wings of feathered birds, these are more powerful in structure of bone and sinew because they are penetrable, that is to say the feathers are separated from one another and the air passes through them. But the bat is aided by its membrane, which binds the whole together and is not penetrated by the air.

Leonardo da Vinci
The eye, which is said to be the window of the soul, is the primary way in which the sensory receptacle of the brain may more fully and magnificently contemplate the infinite works of nature, and the ear is the second, gaining nobility through the recounting of things which the eye has seen.

Leonardo da Vinci
If you, historians or poets or mathematicians, had not seen things through your eyes, you would only be able to report them poorly by writing. And if you, poet, claim to portray a story as if painting with your pen, the painter with his brush will more readily satisfy and will be understood less tediously. If you assert that painting is dumb poetry, then the painter may call poetry blind painting.

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

Leonardo da Vinci
The human bird shall take his first flight, filling the world with amazement, all writings with his fame, and bringing eternal glory to the nest whence he sprang.

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

Leonardo da Vinci
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.

Leonardo da Vinci
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.

Leonardo da Vinci
We might say that the earth has a spirit of growth; that its flesh is the soil, its bones the arrangement and connection of the rocks of which the mountains are composed, its cartilage the tufa, and its blood the springs of water.

Leonardo da Vinci
Let no one read me who is not a mathematician in my beginnings.

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

Leonardo da Vinci
He who in reasoning cites authority is making use of his memory rather than of his intellect.

Leonardo da Vinci