Leonardo da Vinci Quotes

467 quotes in 3549 categories

• The discovery of a good wine is increasingly better for mankind than the discovery of a new star.
• The desire to know is natural to good men.
• Feathers shall raise men even as they do birds towards heaven :- That is by letters written with their quills.
• I awoke, only to see that the rest of the world is still asleep.
• 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…
• It is a far worthier thing to read by the light of experience than to adorn oneself with the labors of others.
• 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…
• Obstacles cannot bend me. Every obstacle yields to effort.
• If you call painting dumb poetry, the painter may call poetry blind painting.
• A good painter has two main objects to paint, man and the intention of his soul. The former is easy, the latter hard as he…
• Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature.
• After painting comes Sculpture, a very noble art, but one that does not in the execution require the same supreme ingenuity as the art of…
• Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.
• That which can be lost cannot be deemed riches.
• 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…
• O neglectful Nature, wherefore art thou thus partial, becoming to some of thy children a tender and benignant mother, to others a most cruel and…
• I wish to work miracles...
• There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment.
• Perspective is a most subtle discovery in mathematical studies, for by means of lines it causes to appear distant that which is near, and large…
• 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…

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