"A bird maintains itself in the air..." - Quote by Leonardo Da Vinci
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.
More by Leonardo Da Vinci
“Experience, the interpreter between creative nature and the human race, teaches the action of nature among mortals: how under the constraint of necessity she cannot act otherwise than as reason, who steers her helm, teaches her to act.”
“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.”
“Beauty perishes in life, but is immortal in art.”
More on Nature
“Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less.”
“Nature is beneficent. I praise her and all her works. She is silent and wise. She is cunning, but for good ends. She has brought me here and will also lead me away. She may scold me, but she will not hate her work. I trust her.”
“Female cats are very Lascivious, and make advances to the male.”
More on Flight
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”