Leonardo da Vinci
385 quotes
Biography
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he has also become known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and palaeontology.
"A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not."
"As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death."
"The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art."
"Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen."
"A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light."
"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."
"Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel."
"Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in."
"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."
"As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death."
"The knowledge of all things is possible"
"Realize that everything connects to everything else."
"Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose"
"All sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of Experience, the mother of all Knowledge."
"Our life is made by the death of others."
"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."
"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."
"Wisdom is the daughter of experience"
"Who sows virtue reaps honour."
"All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions."
"Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation... even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind."
"He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind."
"Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it."
"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do."
"Painting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen. These two arts, you may call them both either poetry or painting, have here interchanged the senses by which they penetrate to the intellect."