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All the elements will be seen mixed together in a great whirling mass, now borne towards the centre of the world, now towards the sky; and now furiously rushing from the South towards the frozen North, and sometimes from the East towards the West, and then again from this hemisphere to the other.
Leonardo da Vinci
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The body which is nearest to the light casts the largest shadow, and why? If an object placed in front of a single light is very close to it you will see that it casts a very large shadow on the opposite wall, and the farther you remove the object from the light the smaller will the image of the shadow become.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Shadow is the diminution alike of light and of darkness, and stands between darkness and light.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Threats alone are the weapons of the threatened man.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience.
Leonardo da Vinci
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A bird makes the same use of wings and tail in the air as a swimmer does of his arms and legs in the water.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Experience shows us that the air must have darkness beyond it and yet it appears blue. If you produce a small quantity of smoke from dry wood and the rays of the sun fall on this smoke, and if you then place behind the smoke a piece of black velvet on which the sun does not shine, you will see that all the smoke which is between the eye and the black stuff will appear of a beautiful blue colour. And if instead of the velvet you place a white cloth smoke, that is too thick smoke, hinders, and too thin smoke does not produce, the perfection of this blue colour. Hence a moderate amount of smoke produces the finest blue.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Men will seem to see new destructions in the sky. The flames that fall from it will seem to rise in it and to fly from it with terror. They will hear every kind of animals speak in human language. They will instantaneously run in person in various parts of the world, without motion. They will see the greatest splendour in the midst of darkness. O! marvel of the human race! What madness has led you thus! You will speak with animals of every species and they with you in human speech. You will see yourself fall from great heights without any harm and torrents will accompany you, and will mingle with their rapid course.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Take a piece of glass of the size of a half sheet of royal folio paper, and fix it... between your eye and the object you wish to portray. Then move it away until your eye is two-thirds of a braccio away from the piece of glass, and fasten your head by means of an instrument in such a way as to prevent any movement of it whatsoever. Then close or cover up one eye, and with a brush or a piece of red chalk finely ground mark out on the glass what is visible beyond it; afterwards, copy it by tracing on paper from the glass, then prick it out upon paper of a better quality and paint it if you so desire, paying special attention to the aerial perspective.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Obstacles do not bend me. Every obstacle is destroyed through rigor.
Leonardo da Vinci
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In many cases one and the same thing is attracted by two strong forces, namely Necessity and Potency. Water falls in rain; the earth absorbs it from the necessity for moisture; and the sun evaporates it, not from necessity, but by its power.
Leonardo da Vinci
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He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Nature is constrained by the cause of her laws which dwell inborn in her. Variant: Nature is constrained by the order of her own law which lives and works within her.
Leonardo da Vinci
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I have found that, in the composition of the human body as compared with the bodies of animals, the organs of sense are duller and coarser. Thus, it is composed of less ingenious instruments, and of spaces less capacious for receiving the faculties of sense.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Darkness is absence of light. Shadow is diminution of light.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Like a whirling wind which rushes down a sandy and hollow valley, and which, in its hasty course, drives to its centre every thing that opposes its furious course... No otherwise does the Northern blast whirl round in its tempestuous progress...
Leonardo da Vinci
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A luminous body will appear more brilliant in proportion as it is surrounded by deeper shadow.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Nothing is that which fills no space. If one single point placed in a circle may be the starting point of an infinite number of lines, and the termination of an infinite number of lines, there must be an infinite number of points separable from this point, and these when reunited become one again; whence it follows that the part may be equal to the whole.
Leonardo da Vinci
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What is called Nothingness is to be found only in time and in speech. In time it stands between the past and future and has no existence in the present; and thus in speech it is one of the things of which we say: They are not, or they are impossible.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Do not reveal, if liberty is precious to you; my face is the prison of love.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Shadow is not the absence of light, merely the obstruction of the luminous rays by an opaque body. Shadow is of the nature of darkness. Light is of the nature of a luminous body; one conceals and the other reveals. They are always associated and inseparable from all objects. But shadow is a more powerful agent than light, for it can impede and entirely deprive bodies of their light, while light can never entirely expel shadow from a body, that is from an opaque body.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Such as harm is when it hurts me not, is good which avails me not.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Fame alone raises herself to Heaven, because virtuous things are in favour with God.
Leonardo da Vinci
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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.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Quote of the day
Life is not having been told that the man has just waxed the floor.
Ogden Nash
Leonardo da Vinci
Born:
April 15, 1452
Died:
May 2, 1519
(aged 67)
Bio:
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance architect, musician, inventor, engineer, sculptor, and painter. His most famous painting is the Mona Lisa.
Known for:
Mona Lisa (1503)
The Last Supper (1498)
The Virgin of the Rocks (1485)
Vitruvian Man
Annunciation (1472)
Most used words:
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nature
body
men
eye
air
life
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time
shadow
experience
small
human
work
sun
Leonardo da Vinci on Wikipedia
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