Leonardo da Vinci Quotes

As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.

The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Realize that everything connects to everything else.

Painting is mute poetry, and poetry is blind painting

If the painter has clumsy hands, he will be apt to introduce them into his works, and so of any other part of his person, which may not happen to be so beautiful as it ought to be. He must, therefore, guard particularly against that self-love, or too good opinion of his own person, and study by every means to acquire the knowledge of what is most beautiful, and of his own defects, that he may adopt the one and avoid the other.

He who does not value life does not deserve it.

Fine gold is recognized when it is tested.

To me it seems that those sciences are vain and full of error which are not born of experience, mother of all certainty, first-hand experience which in its origins, or means, or end has passed through one of the five senses. And if we doubt the certainty of everything which passes through the senses, how much more ought we to doubt things contrary to these senses – ribelli ad essi sensi – such as the existence of God or of the soul or similar things over which there is always dispute and contention. And in fact it happens that whenever reason is wanting men to cry out against one another, which does not happen with certainties. For this reason we shall say that where the cry of controversy is heard, there is no true science, because the truth has one single end and when this is published, argument is destroyed for ever.

Nothing should be so greatly feared as empty fame.

They will say that I, having no literary skill, cannot properly express that which I desire to treat of, but they do not know that my subjects are to be dealt with by experience rather than by words. And [experience] has been the mistress of those who wrote well. And so, as mistress, I will cite her in all cases. Though I may not, like them, be able to quote other authors, I shall rely on that which is much greater and more worthy: on experience, the mistress of their masters.

God sells us all things at the price of labor.

Learning never exhausts the mind.

The function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue.

Just as a well-filled day brings blessed sleep, so a well-employed life brings a blessed death

Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.

The acquisition of knowledge is always of use to the intellect, because it may thus drive out useless things and retain the good. For nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known.

The smallest feline is a masterpiece.

I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.

art is never finished, only abandoned

I am fully conscious that, not being a literary man , certain presumptuous persons will think that they may reasonably blame me; alleging that I am not a man of letters. Foolish folks! do they not know that I might retort as Marius did to the Roman Patricians by saying: That they, who deck themselves out in the labours of others will not allow me my own. They will say that I, having no literary skill, cannot properly express that which I desire to treat of, but they do not know that my subjects are to be dealt with by experience rather than by words; and experience has been the mistress of those who wrote well. And so, as mistress, I will cite her in all cases.

Just as courage imperils life fear protects it.

A well-spent day brings happy sleep.

Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.

Water is the driving force in nature.

Wisdom is the daughter of experience

Obstacles cannot crush me every obstacle yields to stern resolve.

Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose

He who wishes to be rich within a day, will be hanged within a year.

I abhor the supreme folly of those who blame the disciples of nature in defiance of those masters who were themselves her pupils

I love those who can smile in trouble...

It is an acknowledged fact that we perceive errors in the work of others more readily than in our own.

As iron rusts when not used, and water gets foul from standing or turns to ice when exposed to cold, so the intellect degenerates without exercise.-Leonard Da Vinci

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

That which can be lost cannot be deemed riches. Virtue is our true wealth and the true reward of its possessor; it cannot be lost, it never deserts us until life leaves us. Hold property and external riches with fear; they often leave their possessor scorned and mocked at for having lost them.

poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.

All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions

He who thinks little errs much…

As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.

Oh Lord thou givest us everything at the price of an effort.

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

You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.

He turns not back who is bound to a star.

It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.

The knowledge of all things is possible

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

Our life is made by the death of others.

I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.

The common sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.

Painting is concerned with all the 10 attributes of sight; which are: Darkness and Light, Solidity and Color, Form and Position, Distance and Propinquity, Motion and Rest.

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

There is nothing which deceives us as much as our own judgement.

Truth at last cannot be hidden. Dissimulation is of no avail. Dissimulation is to no purpose before so great a judge. Falsehood puts on a mask. Nothing is hidden under the sun.

Fix your course to a star and you can navigate through any storm

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard.

Quando ouvimos os sinos, ouvimos aquilo que já trazemos em nós mesmos como modelo. Sou da opinião que não se deverá desprezar aquele que olhar atentamente para as manchas da parede, para os carvões sobre a grelha, para as nuvens, ou para a correnteza da água, descobrindo, assim, coisas maravilhosas. O génio do pintor há-de se apossar de todas essas coisas para criar composições diversas: luta de homens e de animais, paisagens, monstros, demónios e outras coisas fantásticas. Tudo, enfim, servirá para engrandecer o artista.

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

Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.