Leonardo da Vinci - Air Quotes

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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
To any white body receiving the light from the sun, or the air, the shadows will be of a bluish cast.

Leonardo da Vinci
If a drop of water falls into the sea when it is calm, it must of necessity be that the whole surface of the sea is raised imperceptibly, seeing that water cannot be compressed within itself, like air.

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
That part of the air which is nearest to the wing which presses on it, will have the greatest density.

Leonardo da Vinci
All the rays which convey the images of objects through the air are straight lines. Hence, if the images of very large bodies have to pass through very small holes, and beyond these holes recover their large size, the lines must necessarily intersect.

Leonardo da Vinci
I have seen motions of the air so furious that they have carried, mixed up in their course, the largest trees of the forest and whole roofs of great palaces, and I have seen the same fury bore a hole with a whirling movement digging out a gravel pit, and carrying gravel, sand and water more than half a mile through the air.

Leonardo da Vinci
All bodies together, and each by itself, give off to the surrounding air an infinite number of images which are all-pervading and each complete, each conveying the nature, colour and form of the body which produces it.

Leonardo da Vinci
The air which is struck with most swiftness by the movable thing is compressed to the greatest degree in itself.

Leonardo da Vinci
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
I find that any luminous body when seen through a dense and thick mist diminishes in proportion to its distance from the eye. Thus it is with the sun by day, as well as the moon and the other eternal lights by night. And when the air is clear, these luminaries appear larger in proportion as they are farther from the eye.

Leonardo da Vinci
The boundaries of bodies are the least of all things. The proposition is proved to be true, because the boundary of a thing is a surface, which is not part of the body contained within that surface; nor is it part of the air surrounding that body, but is the medium interposted between the air and the body, as is proved in its place.

Leonardo da Vinci
The function which the wing performs against the air when the air is motionless is the same as that of the air moved against the wings when these are without motion.

Leonardo da Vinci
The properties of the air are such that it may become condensed or rarefied.

Leonardo da Vinci
The body of the earth is of the nature of a fish...because it draws water as its breath instead of air.

Leonardo da Vinci
Every body in light and shade fills the surrounding air with infinite images of itself; and these, by infinite pyramids diffused in the air, represent this body throughout space and on every side.

Leonardo da Vinci
The spirit has no voice, because where there is a voice there is a body, and where there is a body space is occupied, and this prevents the eye from seeing what is placed behind that space; hence the surrounding air is filled by the body, that is by its image.

Leonardo da Vinci
Swimming upon water teaches men how birds do upon the air.

Leonardo da Vinci
Every body that is moved continues to move so long as the impression of the force of its mover is retained in it, therefore the movement of this wing with violence... will come to move the whole bird with it until the impetus of the moved air has been consumed.

Leonardo da Vinci
Since the wings are swifter to press the air than the air is to escape from beneath the wings the air becomes condensed and resists the movement of the wings; and the motive power of these wings by subduing the resistance of the air raises itself in a contrary movement to the movement of the wings.

Leonardo da Vinci