Leonardo da Vinci Quotes (92 Quotes)

Demetrius was wont to say that there was no difference between the words and speech of the unskilled and ignorant and the sounds and rumblings caused by the stomach being full of superfluous wind. This he said, not without reason, for, as he held, it did not in the least matter from what part of them the voice emanated, whether from the lower parts or the mouth, since the one and the other were of equal worth and importance.

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.

He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.

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

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.

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.

Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen even so does inaction sap the vigor's of the mind.

Those who are enamoured of practice without science are like a pilot who goes into a ship without rudder or compass and never has any certainty of where he is going. Practice should always be based upon a sound knowledge of theory.

You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself.... the height of a man's success is gauged by his self-mastery the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment.... And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.

It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.

Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitude.

The Medici created and destroyed me.

Life well spent is.long.

Necessity is the mistress and guardian of Nature.

Even the richest soil, if left uncultivated will produce the rankest weeds.

Who sows virtue reaps honor.

O Lord, Thou givest us everything, At the price Of an effort.

There shall be wings If the accomplishment be not for me, 'tis for some other.

Time stays long enough for those who use it.

The art of procreation and the members employed therein are so repulsive, that if it were not for the beauty of the faces and the adornments of the actors and the pent-up impulse, nature would lose the human species.

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

Strive to preserve your health and in this you will better succeed in proportion as you keep clear of the physicians, for their drugs are a kind of alchemy concerning which there are no fewer books than there are medicines.

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

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

Thou, O God, dost sell us all good things at the price of labor.

Not to anticipate is already to moan.

If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself, or even less, in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight.

The faculty of imagination is both the rudder and the bridle of the senses.

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

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

Intellectual passion dries out sensuality.

Thirst will parch your tongue and your body will waste through lack of sleep ere you can describe in words that which painting instantly sets before the eye

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

No member needs so great a number of muscles as the tongue this exceeds all the rest in the number of its movements

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

I have wasted my hours.

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

Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough we must apply. Being willing is not enough we must do.

You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand.

Let proportion be found not only in numbers and measures, but also in sounds, weights, times, and positions, and what ever force there is.

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

Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience.

Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory.

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.

Water is the driving force of all nature.

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

God sells us all things at the price of labor.

O speculators about perpetual motion, how many vain chimeras have you created in the like quest Go and take your place with the seekers after gold.

Man and the animals are merely a passage and channel for food, a tomb for other animals, a haven for the dead, giving life by the death of others, a coffer full of corruption.