Leonardo da Vinci Quotes

What is fair in men, passes away, but not so in art

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.

Wisdom is the daughter of experience

A bird maintains itself in the air by imperceptible balancing, when near to the mountains or lofty ocean crags; it does this by means of the curves of the winds which as they strike against these projections, being forced to preserve their first impetus bend their straight course towards the sky with divers revolutions, at the beginning of which the birds come to a stop with their wings open, receiving underneath themselves the continual buffetings of the reflex courses of the winds.

As regards this vice, we read that the peacock is more guilty of it than any other animal. For it is always contemplating the beauty of its tail, which it spreads in the form of a wheel, and by its cries attracts to itself the gaze of the creatures that surround it. And this is the last vice to be conquered.

Nature appears to have been the cruel stepmother rather than the mother of many animals.

In the days of thy youth seek to obtain that which shall compensate the losses of thy old age.

Science is the captain, and practice the soldiers.

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

When taking a selfie, remember the most natural pose is still best

There is nothing that deceives us more than our own judgment when used to give an opinion on our own works. It is sound in judging the work of our enemies but not that of our friends, for hate and love are two of the most powerfully motivating factors found among living things.

I say that the power of vision extends through the visual rays to the surface of non-transparent bodies, while the power possessed by these bodies extends to the power of vision.

A luminous body will appear more brilliant in proportion as it is surrounded by deeper shadow.

Do not imitate one another's style. If you do, so far as your art is concerned you will be called a grandson, rather than the son of Nature.

Those who are enamoured of practice without science are like a pilot who goes into a ship without rudder or compass and never has any certainty of where he is going. Practice should always be based upon a sound knowledge of theory.

Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.

But to me all sciences seem vain and full of error that are not born of experience, mother of all certainty, and do not terminate in an actual experience.

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

A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law, which instrument it is within the capacity of man to reproduce with all its movements, but not with a corresponding degree of strength, though it is deficient only in the power of maintaining equilibrium. We may therefore say that such an instrument constructed by man is lacking in nothing except the life of the bird, and this life must needs be supplied from that of man.

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

He only moves toward the perfection of his art whose criticism surpasses his achievement.

What induces you, oh man, to depart from your home in town, to leave parents and friends, and go to the countryside over mountains and valleys, if it is not for the beauty of the world of nature?

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

You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself.

Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.

In order to arrive at knowledge of the motions of birds in the air, it is first necessary to acquire knowledge of the winds, which we will prove by the motions of water in itself, and this knowledge will be a step enabling us to arrive at the knowledge of beings that fly between the air and the wind.

Having wandered some distance among gloomy rocks, I came to the entrance of a great cavern ... Two contrary emotions arose in me: fear and desire--fear of the threatening dark cavern, desire to see whether there were any marvelous things in it.

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

O painter, take care lest the greed for gain prove a stronger incentive than renown in art, for to gain this renown is a far greater thing than is the renown of riches.

If you cause your ship to stop and place the head of a long tube in the water and place the outer extremity to your ear, you will hear ships at a great distance from you.

Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.

Truth was always but the daughter of time.

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.

You should prefer a good scientist without literary abilities than a literate one without scientific skills

The painter strives and competes with nature.

The great man presides over all his states of consciousness with obstinate rigor.

While you are alone you are entirely your own master and if you have one companion you are but half your own, and the less so in proportion to the indiscretion of his behavior.

The mind that engages in subjects of too great variety becomes confused and weakened.

Every loss which we incur leaves behind it vexation in the memory, save the greatest loss of all, that is, death, which annihilates the memory, together with life.

Nature has placed in the front part of man, as he moves, all those parts which when struck cause him to feel pain; and this is felt in the joints of the legs, the forehead and the nose, and has been so devised for the preservation of man, because if such pain were not felt in these limbs they would be destroyed by the many blows they receive.

O Time! consumer of all things; O envious age! thou dost destroy all things and devour all things with the relentless teeth of years, little by little in a slow death. Helen, when she looked in her mirror, seeing the withered wrinkles made in her face by old age, wept and wondered why she had twice been carried away.

average human “looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance, and talks without thinking.

Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?

The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of.

Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.

You should often amuse yourself when you take a walk for recreation, in watching and taking note of the attitudes and actions of men as they talk and dispute, or laugh or come to blows with one another... noting these down with rapid strokes, in a little pocket-book which you ought always to carry with you.

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

One painter ought never to imitate the manner of any other; because in that case he cannot be called the child of nature, but the grandchild. It is always best to have recourse to nature, which is replete with such abundance of objects, than to the productions of other masters, who learnt everything from her.

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

Necessity is a guardian in Nature.

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

Reprove your friend in secret and praise him openly.

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.

The painter must be solitary. For if you are alone you are completely yourself, but if you are accompanied by a single companion, you are only half yourself.

Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.

Supreme happiness will be the greatest cause of misery, and the perfection of wisdom the occassion of folly.

If we make mistakes in our first compositions and do not know them, we may not amend them.

Many are they who have a taste and love for drawing, but no talent; and this will be discernible in boys who are not diligent and never finish their drawings with shading.

Nature varies the seed according to the variety of the things she desires to produce in the world.

The fame of the rich man dies with him; the fame of the treasure, and not of the man who possessed it, remains.