Leonardo da Vinci Quotes

“The moment is timeless.”

“One's thoughts turn towards Hope.”

“Those who, in debate, appeal to their qualifications, argue from memory, not from understanding.”

“Experience does not err. Only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power.”

“Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel.”

“How many emperors and how many princes have lived and died and no record of them remains, and they only sought to gain dominions and riches in order that their fame might be ever-lasting.”

“The sun gives spirit and life to the plants and the earth nourishes them with moisture.”

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

“A deaf and dumb person who sees two men in conversation - may nevertheless understand from the attitudes and gestures of the speakers, how well their discussion is getting along.”

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

“The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.”

“The beginnings and ends of shadow lie between the light and darkness and may be infinitely diminished and infinitely increased. Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow.”

“The desire to know is natural to good men.”

“Oh! Speculators on things, boast not of knowing the things that nature ordinarily brings about; but rejoice if you know the end of those things which you yourself device.”

“He who fears dangers will not perish by them.”

“Slender certainty is better than portentous falsehood.”

“Constancy does not begin, but is that which perseveres.”

“He who walks straight rarely falls.”

“Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.”

“Man and animals are in reality vehicles and conduits of food, tombs of animals, hostels of Death, coverings that consume, deriving life by the death of others.”

“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.”

“Do not reveal, if liberty is precious to you; my face is the prison of love.”

“The eye transmits its own image through the air to all the objects which face it, and also receives them on its own surface, whence the "sensus communis" takes them and considers them.”

“There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see.”

“Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places.”