Leonardo Da Vinci

Quotes

• “It seems to me that men of coarse and clumsy habits and of small knowledge do not deserve such fine instruments nor so g...”
• “Those men who are inventors and interpreters between Nature and Man, as compared with boasters and declaimers of the wor...”
• “Shadow is not the absence of light, merely the obstruction of the luminous rays by an opaque body. Shadow is of the natu...”
• “These rules are of use only in correcting the figures; since every man makes some mistakes in his first compositions and...”
• “First, of things relating to animals; secondly, of irrational creatures; thirdly of plants; fourthly, of ceremonies; fif...”
• “O time, swift robber of all created things, how many kings, how many nations hast thou undone, and how many changes of s...”
• “Actually the quote is not authentic but made up from a novel by Dmitri Merejkowski (w:Dmitry Merezhkovsky) entitled "The...”
• “Painting is concerned with all the ten attributes of sight, namely darkness and brightness, substance and colour, form a...”
• “Blind ignorance misleads us thus and delights with the results of lascivious joys. Because it does not know the true lig...”
• “The eye - which sees all objects reversed - retains the images for some time. This conclusion is proved by the results; ...”
• “It is true that impatience, the mother of stupidity, praises brevity, as if such persons had not life long enough to ser...”
• “It is impossible that the eye should project from itself, by visual rays, the visual virtue, since, as soon as it opens,...”
• “If you meet with any one who is virtuous do not drive him from you; do him honour, so that he may not have to flee from ...”
• “The line has in itself neither matter nor substance and may rather be called an imaginary idea than a real object; and t...”
• “He conceived it to be the painter's duty not only to comment on natural phenomena as restrained by law, but to merge his...”
• “O neglectful Nature, wherefore art thou thus partial, becoming to some of thy children a tender and benignant mother, to...”
• “You know that in an atmosphere of uniform density the most distant things seen through it, such as the mountains, in con...”
• “Nothing is that which fills no space. If one single point placed in a circle may be the starting point of an infinite nu...”
• “The earth is not in the centre of the Sun's orbit nor at the centre of the universe, but in the centre of its companion ...”
• “The master [Leonardo da Vinci] permits harm to no living creatures, not even to plants. Zoroastro tells me that from an ...”
• “Those who are in love with practice without knowledge are like the sailor who gets into a ship without rudder or compass...”
• “A shadow may be infinitely dark, and also of infinite degrees of absence of darkness. The beginnings and ends of shadow ...”
• “Perspective is nothing more than a rational demonstration applied to the consideration of how objects in front of the ey...”
• “If you take as your pattern the wings of feathered birds, these are more powerful in structure of bone and sinew because...”
• “The boundaries of bodies are the least of all things. The proposition is proved to be true, because the boundary of a th...”
• “I have seen motions of the air so furious that they have carried, mixed up in their course, the largest trees of the for...”
• “I find that any luminous body when seen through a dense and thick mist diminishes in proportion to its distance from the...”
• “O Time! consumer of all things; O envious age! thou dost destroy all things and devour all things with the relentless te...”
• “That is not riches, which may be lost; virtue is our true good and the true reward of its possessor. That cannot be lost...”
• “The body which is nearest to the light casts the largest shadow, and why? If an object placed in front of a single light...”
• “Here forms, here colours, here the character of every part of the universe are concentrated to a point; and that point i...”
• “Light is the chaser away of darkness. Shade is the obstruction of light. Primary light is that which falls on objects an...”
• “There will be many who will eagerly and with great care and solicitude follow up a thing, which, if they only knew its m...”
• “Any one who in discussion relies upon authority uses, not his understanding, but rather his memory. Good culture is born...”
• “Men born in hot countries love the night because it refreshes them and have a horror of light because it burns them; and...”
• “There will be many men who will move one against another, holding in their hands a cutting tool. But these will not do e...”
• “If you wish to make a figure in marble, first make one of clay, and when you have finished it, let it dry and place it i...”
• “Since the wings are swifter to press the air than the air is to escape from beneath the wings the air becomes condensed ...”
• “Oysters open completely when the moon is full; and when the crab sees one it throws a piece of stone or seaweed into it ...”
• “All the elements will be seen mixed together in a great whirling mass, now borne towards the centre of the world, now to...”
• “I myself have proved it to be of no small use, when in bed in the dark, to recall in fancy the external details of forms...”
• “Much as Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance artists used the revelations of human anatomy to help them depict the bo...”
• “All objects project their whole image and likeness, diffused and mingled in the whole of the atmosphere, opposite to the...”
• “This writing distinctly about the kite seems to be my destiny, because among the first recollections of my infancy, it s...”
• “A single and distinct luminous body causes stronger relief in the object than a diffused light; as may be seen by compar...”
• “To preserve Nature's chiefest boon, that is freedom, I can find means of offence and defence, when it is assailed by amb...”
• “He makes powerful and very strong wines, … and the wine is worth more than a penny per jug and the pound of veal a penny...”
• “The unicorn, through its intemperance and not knowing how to control itself, for the love it bears to fair maidens forge...”
• “We see the most striking example of humility in the lamb which will submit to any animal; and when they are given for fo...”
• “Every body that is moved continues to move so long as the impression of the force of its mover is retained in it, theref...”