Da Vinci Quotes

The soul is content to stay imprisoned in the human body ... for through the eyes all the various things of nature are represented to the soul. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

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 ruthless stepmother? I see thy children given into slavery to others without ever receiving any benefit, and in lieu of any reward for the services they have done for them they are repaid by the severest punishments. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

The soul can never be corrupted with the corruption of the body, but it is like the wind which causes the sound of the organ, and which ceases to produce a good effect when a pipe is spoilt. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

The love of anything is the offspring of knowledge, love being more fervent in proportion as knowledge is more certain. And this certainty springs from a complete knowledge of all parts which united compose the whole of the thing which out to be loved. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

The desire to know is natural to good men. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

That painter who has no doubts will achieve little. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

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

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

Let no one read my principles who is not a mathematician," he famously declared (less famous is the fact that the principles he was referring to were his theories of how the aortic pulmonary valve worked). Ironically, he himself was a poor mathematician, often making simple mistakes. In one of his notes he counted up his growing library: "25 small books, 2 larger books, 16 still larger, 6 bound in vellum, 1 book with green chamois cover." This reckoning (with its charmingly haphazard system of classification) adds up to fifty, but Leonardo reached a different sum: "Total: 48," he confidently declared. ~ Ross King

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. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Animals will be seen on the earth who will always be fighting against each other with the greatest loss and frequent deaths on each side. And there will be no end to their malignity; by their strong limbs we shall see a great portion of the trees of the vast forests laid low throughout the universe; and, when they are filled with food the satisfaction of their desires will be to deal death and grief and labour and wars and fury to every living thing; and from their immoderate pride they will desire to rise towards heaven, but the too great weight of their limbs will keep them down. Nothing will remain on earth, or under the earth or in the waters which will not be persecuted, disturbed and spoiled, and those of one country removed into another. And their bodies will become the sepulture and means of transit of all they have killed.

O Earth! why dost thou not open and engulf them in the fissures of thy vast abyss and caverns, and no longer display in the sight of heaven such a cruel and horrible monster? ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

The study of what is excellent is food for the mind and body. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Of the four elements water is the second in weight and the second in respect of mobility. It is never at rest until it unites with the sea ... ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

He who truly knows has no occasion to shout. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Every action needs to be prompted by a motive. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Tell me if anything was ever done... Tell me... Tell me. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

To write good religious science fiction, or indeed good religious fiction of any kind, is a challenge but one that it would be worthwhile trying to meet. It seems a pity the field has been apparently abandoned to pernicious rubbish like 'The Da Vinci Code', though this seems already, mercifully, to have faded away. In this, as in other areas, we could do with another C. S. Lewis to re-state the principles of Christianity in terms to stir the imagination. ~ Hal G.P. Colebatch

A good painter is to paint two main things, men and the working of man's mind. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Learning is the only thing that never disappoints us. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

I do not run from beauty, my own or anyone else's. If it is a gift, I claim it and I use it. And if it is a curse, well...I claim it and use it." Victoria da Vinci ~ Austin Scott Collins

It's just an accident that we happen to be on earth, enjoying our silly little moments, distracting ourselves as often as possible so we don't have to really face up to the fact that, you know, we're just temporary people with a very short time in a universe that will eventually be completely gone. And everything that you value, whether it's Shakespeare, Beethoven, da Vinci, or whatever, will be gone. The earth will be gone. The sun will be gone. There'll be nothing. The best you can do to get through life is distraction. Love works as a distraction. And work works as a distraction. You can distract yourself a billion different ways. But the key is to distract yourself. ~ Woody Allen

How may paintings have preserved the image of a divine beauty which in its natural manifestation has been rapidly overtaken by time or death. Thus, the work of the painter is nobler than that of nature, its mistress. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

In time and with water, everything changes ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

If there's no love, what then? ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

It is a far worthier thing to read by the light of experience than to adorn oneself with the labors of others. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

It is better to imitate ancient than modern work. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Things that are separate shall be united and acquire such virtue that they will restore to man his lost memory. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

The faculty of imagination is both the rudder and the bridle of the senses. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Oysters open completely when the moon is full; and when the crab sees one it throws a piece of stone or seaweed into it and the oyster cannot close again so that it serves the crab for meat. Such is the fate of him who opens his mouth too much and thereby puts himself at the mercy of the listener. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519 ~ Robert Greene

Perspective is the rein and rudder of painting. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

sooner will there exist a body without a shadow than virtue unaccompanied by envy. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Every patient is a consumer, and every consumer is a potential patient. What NantWorks is doing is building the world the way Da Vinci saw it, and augmenting every frame a human being sees as they work, live and play. ~ Patrick Soon-Shiong

The painter who draws by practise and judgment of the eye without the use of reason is like the mirror which reproduces within itself all the objects which are set opposite to it without knowledge of the same. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

You're probably thinking the same thing we were: where did Jane get the rope to tie the prisoners? We researched this very conundrum thoroughly, and after two weeks we can say, without a doubt : nobody knows. It's a question that has baffled historians and archaeologists alike. Professor Herbert Halprin explains: "Ropes have been a mystery to scholars throughout the ages. The first ropes were thought to appear as far back as 17,000 BC and made of vines. Unfortunately, being made of vines, none of those early examples survived. Later, da Vinci drew sketches for a rope-making machine, but it was never built. In medieval times, there were secret societies, called Rope Guilds, whose rope-twisting practices were protected via a complicated series of handshakes and passwords -" Okay. Your narrators are interrupting the dear professor, for reasons of boredom. Plus, his English accent sounded sketchy and forced. We asked him where Jane could've gotten the rope, but maybe he thought we asked him where anyone could've gotten any rope at any given point in history. Trust us, we are as frustrated as you must be about the lack of a definitive answer. ~ Cynthia Hand

The imagination is to the effect as the shadow to the opaque body which causes the shadow. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Those who fall in love with practice without science are like a sailor who enters a ship without a helm or a compass, and who never can be certain whither he is going. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Inaction saps the vigor of the mind. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

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. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

A natural action is accomplished in the briefest manner. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

The smallest feline is a masterpiece. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

The painter who is familiar with the nature of the sinews, muscles, and tendons, will know very well, in giving movement to a limb, how many and which sinews cause it; and which muscle, by swelling, causes the contraction of that sinew; and which sinews, expanded into the thinnest cartilage, surround and support the said muscle. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

When you are alone you are all your own. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

The good painter must paint two things: a person and the essence of his soul. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Existence is perpetual motion. Galileo wondered about it, Da Vinci. ~ Frederick Lenz

When he was creating this picture, Leonardo da Vinci encountered a serious problem: he had to depict Good - in the person of Jesus - and Evil - in the figure of Judas, the friend who resolves to betray him during the meal. He stopped work on the painting until he could find his ideal models.

One day, when he was listening to a choir, he saw in one of the boys the perfect image of Christ. He invited him to his studio and made sketches and studies of his face.

Three years went by. The Last Supper was almost complete, but Leonardo had still not found the perfect model for Judas. The cardinal responsible for the church started to put pressure on him to finish the mural.

After many days spent vainly searching, the artist came across a prematurely aged youth, in rags and lying drunk in the gutter. With some difficulty, he persuaded his assistants to bring the fellow directly to the church, since there was no time left to make preliminary sketches.

The beggar was taken there, not quite understanding what was going on. He was propped up by Leonardo's assistants, while Leonardo copied the lines of impiety, sin and egotism so clearly etched on his features.

When he had finished, the beggar, who had sobered up slightly, opened his eyes and saw the picture before him. With a mixture of horror and sadness he said:

'I've seen that picture before!'


'When?' asked an astonished Leonardo.

'Three year ~ Paulo Coelho

Men born in hot countries love the night because it refreshes them and have a horror of light because it burns them. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Every part is disposed to unite with the whole, that it may thereby escape from its own incompleteness. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Ask advice of him who governs himself well. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Fear arises sooner than anything else. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

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. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

One shall be born from small beginnings which will rapidly become vast. This will respect no created thing, rather will it, by its power, transform almost every thing from its own nature into another. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

No human investigation can be called real knowledge if it does not pass through mathematical demonstrations; and if you say that the kinds of knowledge that begin and end in the mind have any value as truth, this cannot be conceded, but rather must be denied for many reasons, and first of all because in such mental discussions there is no experimentation, without which nothing provides certainty of itself. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Even the richest soil, if left uncultivated will produce the rankest weeds. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Everything in some way connects to everything else".

Leonardo Da Vinci ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

In life beauty perishes, but not in art. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

I've been strongly influenced, in technique as well as subject matter, by some of the early 20th-century book illustrators - Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac in particular, Burne-Jones and other Pre-Raphaelites, and the Arts-&-Crafts movement they engendered. I'm continually inspired by Rembrandt, Breughel (I've wondered whether his brilliant "Tower of Babel" had inspired Tolkien's description of Minas Tyrith), Hieronymous Bosch, Albrecht Durer, and Turner; it's not necessarily that they influence my work in any particular direction, more that their example raises my spirits, re-affirms my belief in the power of images to move and delight us, and shows me how much further I have to go, how much is possible. Having visited Venice and Florence for the first time, I am besotted with the Italian Renaissance artists - Botticelli, Bellini, da Vinci and others. Their work is calm, controlled, and yet each face and landscape contains such passion. In Botticelli's paintings, every pebble and every leaf is rendered with a religious devotion; there is reverence inherent in paying such close attention to every stone, turning painting itself into a form of worship, an act of prayer. ~ Alan Lee (artist)

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. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

My body will not be a tomb for other creatures. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

All sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of Experience, the mother of all Knowledge. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

It reflects no great honor on a painter to be able to execute only one thing well
such as a head, an academy figure, or draperies, animals, landscapes, or the like
in other words, confining himself to some particular object of study. This is so because there is scarcely a person so devoid of genius as to fail of success if he applies himself earnestly to one branch of study and practices it continually. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Man has much power of discourse which for the most part is vain and false; animals have but little, but it is useful and true, and a small truth is better than a great lie. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

He who has access to the fountain does not go to the water-pot. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Edwin Land of Polaroid talked about the intersection of the humanities and science. I like that intersection. There's something magical about that place. There are a lot of people innovating, and that's not the main distinction of my career. The reason Apple resonates with people is that there's a deep current of humanity in our innovation. I think great artists and great engineers are similar in that they both have a desire to express themselves. In fact some of the best people working on the original Mac were poets and musicians on the side. In the seventies computers became a way for people to express their creativity. Great artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were also great art science. Michelangelo knew a lot about how to quarry stone, not just how to be a sculptor. ~ Walter Isaacson

There are four Powers: memory and intellect, desire and covetousness. The two first are mental and the others sensual. The three senses: sight, hearing and smell cannot well be prevented; touch and taste not at all. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

All the bystanders at an event worthy of note adopt various gestures of admiration when contemplating the occurrence. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

The Bactrian have two humps; the Arabian one only. They are swift in battle and most useful to carry burdens. This animal is extremely observant of rule and measure, for it will not move if it has a greater weight than it is used to, and if it is taken too far it does the same, and suddenly stops and so the merchants are obliged to lodge there. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

The painter strives and competes with nature. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

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. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln never saw a movie, heard a radio or looked at television. They had 'Loneliness' and knew what to do with it. They were not afraid of being lonely because they knew that was when the creative mood in them would work. ~ Carl Sandburg

Perspective is nothing more than a rational demonstration applied to the consideration of how objects in front of the eye transmit their image to it, by means of a pyramid of lines. The Pyramid is the name I apply to the lines which, starting from the surface and edges of each object, converge from a distance and meet in a single point. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

You grow in reputation like bread in the hands of a child. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

How painting surpasses all human works by reason of the subtle possibilities which it contains. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Smoke was a person with a sense of history. Do you know what I mean? ... in truth, I DID know what she meant. Da Vinci, Martin Luther King, Jr., Genghis Kahn, Abraham Lincoln, Bette Davis - if you read their definitive biographies, you learned even when they were a month old, cooing in some wobbly crib in the middle of nowhere, they already had something historic about them. The way other kids had baseball, long division, Hot Wheels, and hula hoops, these kids had History and thus tended to be prone to colds, unpopular, sometimes plagued with a physical deformity (Lord Byron's clubfoot, Maugham's severe stutter, for example), which pushed them into exile in their heads. It was there they began to dream of human anatomy, civil rights, conquering Asia, a lost speech and being (within a span of four years) a jezebel, a marked woman, a little fox and an old maid. ~ Marisha Pessl

Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

The ancient triumph of Christianity proved to be the single greatest cultural transformation our world has ever seen.

Without it the entire history of Late Antiquity would not have happened as it did.

We would never have had the Middle Ages, the Reformation, the Renaissance, or modernity as we know it.

There could never have been a Matthew Arnold. Or any of the Victorian poets. Or any of the other authors of our canon: no Milton, no Shakespeare, no Chaucer.

We would have had none of our revered artists: Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, or Rembrandt. And none of our brilliant composers: Mozart, Handel, or Bach.

To be sure, we would have had other Miltons, Michelangelos, and Mozarts in their places, and it is impossible to know whether these would have been better or worse.

But they would have been incalculably different. ~ Bart D. Ehrman

If you do not rest on the good foundation of nature, you will labour with little honor and less profit. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Creatures shall be seen on the earth who will always be fighting one another, with the greatest losses and frequent deaths on either side. There will be no bounds to their malice; by their strong limbs the vast forests of the world shall be laid low; and when they are filled with food they shall gratify their desires by dealing out death, affliction, labour, terror, and banishment to every living thing; and then from their boundless pride they will desire to rise towards heaven, but the excessive weight of their limbs will hold them down. Nothing shall remain on the earth or under the earth or in the waters that shall not be pursued, disturbed, or spoiled, and that which is in one country removed into another. And their bodies shall be made the tomb and the means of transit of all the living bodies they have slain.
O earth, why do you not open and hurl them into the deep fissures of thy vast abysses and caverns, and no longer display in the sight of heaven so cruel and horrible a monster? ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

He who never puts his trust in any man will never be deceived. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

As a well-spent day gives, joy in sleep
so a well-spent life brings, joy in dying ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Why are the bones of great fishes, and oysters and corals and various other shells and sea-snails, found on the high tops of mountains that border the sea, in the same way in which they are found in the depths of the sea? ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

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. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

To embrace the belief that man is the accidental product of a random and otherwise genetically and biologically impossible Darwinian gradual evolution allegedly monitored by a quasi-fictitious natural selection, a process that supposedly started with an amoeba nobody knows how it arrived on Earth that somehow became a fish with stumps for legs that turned crocodile, a creature that following successive transmutations "evolved" into an ape that ended up as Leonardo Da Vinci is an attitude that comes in conflict with the scientific method of research and it certainly violates its standard principles. ~ Paul Greene

A man of supreme folly: his life flies away while he is merely hoping to enjoy it. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

We all still show too little respect for nature, which in Leonardo's deep words recalling Hamlet's speech "is full of infinite reasons which never appeared in experience." Every one of us human beings corresponds to one of the infinite experiments in which these "reasons of nature" force themselves into experience. ~ Sigmund Freud

Things severed shall be united and shall acquire of themselves such virtue that they shall restore to men their lost memory: - That is the papyrus sheets, which are formed out of several strips and preserve the memory of the thoughts and deeds of men. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

O time! swift devourer of all created things! ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

On average, everyone has read The Da Vinci Code. You have probably read it. Even if you have not read it, statistically you have. ~ Andy Miller

Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation ... even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Tom Hanks, who starred in 'The Da Vinci Code,' turns out to be related to a number of the historic characters that feature in 'The Da Vinci Code,' including William the Conqueror and Shakespeare. ~ Steven Pinker

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

There is a connection, hard to explain logically but easy to feel, between achievement in public life and progress in the arts. The age of Pericles was also the age of Phidias. The age of Lorenzo de Medici was also the age of Leonardo da Vinci. The age Elizabeth also the age of Shakespeare. And the New Frontier for which I campaign in public life, can also be a New Frontier for American art. ~ John F. Kennedy

Avoid the precepts of those thinkers whose reasoning is not confirmed by experience. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci