Leonardo Da Vinci quotes

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.

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

Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.

Men of lofty genius sometimes accomplish the most when they work least, for their minds are occupied with their ideas and the perfection of their conceptions, to which they afterwards give form.

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

Who sows virtue reaps honor.

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

While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.

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

Good men by nature, wish to know. I know that many will call this useless work... men who desire nothing but material riches and are absolutely devoid of that of wisdom, which is the food and only true riches of the mind.

Life well spent is long.

Science is the captain, and practice the soldiers.

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.

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

Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?

Water is the driving force of all nature.

Just as courage is the danger of life, so is fear its safeguard.

Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.

The natural desire of good men is knowledge.

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

Just as courage is the danger of life, so is fear its safeguard.

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

The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.

For, verily, great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you little know it, you will be able to love it only little or not at all.

The natural desire of good men is knowledge.

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.

Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.

Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature. Necessity is the theme and inventress of nature, her curb and her eternal law.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

Our life is made by the death of others.

To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another; and not only among the plants, but among the boughs, the leaves and the fruits, you will not find one which is exactly similar to another.

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.

All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part.

While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.

Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.

Good men by nature, wish to know. I know that many will call this useless work... men who desire nothing but material riches and are absolutely devoid of that of wisdom, which is the food and only true riches of the mind.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

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

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.

In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time.

Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

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

He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.

Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

The truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior intellects.

Good men by nature, wish to know. I know that many will call this useless work... men who desire nothing but material riches and are absolutely devoid of that of wisdom, which is the food and only true riches of the mind.

Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.

A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not.

All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.

It's easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.

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

Knowledge of the past and of the places of the earth is the ornament and food of the mind of man.

Time abides long enough for those who make use of it.

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

Nature never breaks her own laws.

For, verily, great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you little know it, you will be able to love it only little or not at all.

Learning never exhausts the mind.

Good men by nature, wish to know. I know that many will call this useless work... men who desire nothing but material riches and are absolutely devoid of that of wisdom, which is the food and only true riches of the mind.

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.

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.

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

Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.

The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.

Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

In order to arrive at knowledge of the motions of birds in the air, it is first necessary to acquire knowledge of the winds, which we will prove by the motions of water in itself, and this knowledge will be a step enabling us to arrive at the knowledge of beings that fly between the air and the wind.

A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not.

Just as food eaten without appetite is a tedious nourishment, so does study without zeal damage the memory by not assimilating what it absorbs.

Men of lofty genius sometimes accomplish the most when they work least, for their minds are occupied with their ideas and the perfection of their conceptions, to which they afterwards give form.

Our life is made by the death of others.

The natural desire of good men is knowledge.

For, verily, great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you little know it, you will be able to love it only little or not at all.

Knowledge of the past and of the places of the earth is the ornament and food of the mind of man.