Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect.
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| Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen. ― Leonardo da Vinci |
Here is a collection of Leonardo da Vinci most famous quotes: Leonardo da Vinci Quotes about art, painting, poetry, thinking, work, knowledge, learning, curiosity, truth and science. Quotes and sayings on life, love, nature, water, silence, power, flight and education by Leonardo da Vinci.
Leonardo da Vinci Quotes and Sayings
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.
Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.
Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.
It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.
A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.
The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.
The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
Who sows virtue reaps honor.
One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.
Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.
Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?
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.
I love those who can smile in trouble.
The beginnings and ends of shadow lie between the light and darkness and may be infinitely diminished and infinitely increased. Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow.
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| Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets. ― Leonardo da Vinci |
Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood.
The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.
He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.
As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.
The smallest feline is a masterpiece.
The truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior intellects.
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.
Art is never finished, only abandoned.
Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.
Learning never exhausts the mind.
Time abides long enough for those who make use of it.
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.
Knowledge of the past and of the places of the earth is the ornament and food of the mind of man.
There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.
The knowledge of all things is possible.
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| Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence. ― Leonardo da Vinci |
Science is the captain, and practice the soldiers.
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.
The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.
Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.
It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.
Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses - especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.
I have found that, in the composition of the human body as compared with the bodies of animals, the organs of sense are duller and coarser. Thus, it is composed of less ingenious instruments, and of spaces less capacious for receiving the faculties of sense.
As you cannot do what you want, want what you can do.
The deeper the feeling, the greater the pain.
Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments.
I thought I was learning to live; I was only learning to die.
The function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue.
Tears come from the heart and not from the brain.
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.
One has no right to love or hate anything if one has not acquired a thorough knowledge of its nature. Great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you know it but little you will be able to love it only a little or not at all.
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| Tears come from the heart and not from the brain. ― Leonardo da Vinci |
Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.
The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of.
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.
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.
life without love, is no life at all.
The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.
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.
Realize that everything connects to everything else.
Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind.
You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand.
Time stays long enough for those who use it.
An average human looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance, and talks without thinking.
Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.
The senses are of the earth, the reason stands apart from them in contemplation.
Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose.
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| The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions. ― Leonardo da Vinci |
I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.
Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.
Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.
He who does not oppose evil... commands it to be done.
Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!
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.
He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss.
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.
Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world.
Obstacles cannot crush me; every obstacle yields to stern resolve.
Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.
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.
All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions.
All sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of Experience, the mother of all Knowledge.
Water is the driving force in nature.
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| There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see. ― Leonardo da Vinci |
Medicine is the restoration of discordant elements; sickness is the discord of the elements infused into the living body.
A poet knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.
The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard.
Our body is dependant on Heaven and Heaven on the Spirit.
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.
To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; Study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.
As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.
The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far below the musician in that of invisible things.
Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.
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.
Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.
I have wasted my hours.
I awoke only to find that the rest of the world was still asleep.
He who thinks little errs much.
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| Experience is a truer guide than the words of others. ― Leonardo da Vinci |
Our life is made by the death of others.
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.
The divisions of Perspective are 3, as used in drawing; of these, the first includes the diminution in size of opaque objects; the second treats of the diminution and loss of outline in such opaque objects; the third, of the diminution and loss of colour at long distances.
My body will not be a tomb for other creatures.
He who truly knows has no occasion to shout.
The worst evil which can befall the artist is that his work should appear good in his own eyes.
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.
Having wandered some distance among gloomy rocks, I came to the entrance of a great cavern.... Two contrary emotions arose in me: fear and desire - fear of the threatening dark cavern, desire to see whether there were any marvelous things in it.
Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places.
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.
Each man is always in the middle of the surface of the earth and under the zenith of his own hemisphere, and over the centre of the earth.
A well-spent day brings happy sleep.
Wisdom is the daughter of experience.
Why does the eye see more clearly when asleep than the imagination when awake?
The natural desire of good men is knowledge.
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| Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master. ― Leonardo da Vinci |
Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail.
He who wishes to be rich within a day, will be hanged within a year.
Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.
The length of a man's outspread arms is equal to his height.
Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel.
Men fight wars and destroy everything around them. The earth should open and swallow them up. He who does not value life does not deserve it. Never destroy another life through rage, or through malice.
What is fair in men, passes away, but not so in art.
Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.
The human bird shall take his first flight, filling the words with amazement, all writings with his fame, and bringing eternal glory to those whose nest whence he sprang.
The supreme misfortune is when theory outstrips performance.
If there's no love, what then?
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.
A wave is never found alone, but is mingled with the other waves.
Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitudes.
He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done.
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| Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ― Leonardo da Vinci |
He is a poor pupil who does not go beyond his master.
Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature. Necessity is the theme and inventress of nature, her curb and her eternal law.
The mind that engages in subjects of too great variety becomes confused and weakened.
If you find from your own experience that something is a fact and it contradicts what some authority has written down, then you must abandon the authority and base your reasoning on your own findings.
While human ingenuity may devise various inventions to the same ends, it will never devise anything more beautiful, nor more simple, nor more to the purpose than nature does, because in her inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.
I have always felt it is my destiny to build a machine that would allow man to fly.
Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.
I abhor the supreme folly of those who blame the disciples of nature in defiance of those masters who were themselves her pupils.
Love is something so ugly that the human race would die out if lovers could see what they were doing.
People of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and made things happen.
The spirit desires to remain with its body, because, without the organic instruments of that body, it can neither act, nor feel anything.
Fix your course to a star and you can navigate through any storm.
It is as great an error to speak well of a worthless man as to speak ill of a good man.
It is an acknowledged fact that we perceive errors in the work of others more readily than in our own.
He who can copy can do.
There is no object so large but that at a great distance from the eye it does not appear smaller than a smaller object near.
The eye sees a thing more clearly in dreams, than the imagination awake.
Those who, in debate, appeal to their qualifications, argue from memory, not from understanding.
To become an artist you have to be curious.
How many emperors and how many princes have lived and died and no record of them remains, and they only sought to gain dominions and riches in order that their fame might be ever-lasting.
Experience does not err; only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power.
Sooner will there exist a body without a shadow than virtue unaccompanied by envy.
Painting is mute poetry, and poetry is blind painting.
Lies don't solve problems it just make it worst.... so liars beware.
Not to punish evil is equivalent to authorizing it.
A life without love, is no life at all.
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.
The men of experiment are like the ant; they only collect and use. But the bee gathers its materials from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own.
The organ of perception acts more readily than judgment.
When 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.
Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.
Just as courage is the danger of life, so is fear its safeguard.
He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.
In time and with water, everything changes.
Reprove your friend in secret and praise him in public.
While I thought I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.
Instrumental or mechanical science is the noblest and, above all others, the most useful.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, and there you long to return.
Just as a well-filled day brings blessed sleep, so a well-employed life brings a blessed death.
Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.
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.
Avoid the precepts of those thinkers whose reasoning is not confirmed by experience.
When the fig-tree stood without fruit no one looked at it. Wishing by producing this fruit be praised by men, it was bent and broken by them.
It is better to imitate ancient than modern work.
Painting is concerned with all the 10 attributes of sight; which are: Darkness and Light, Solidity and Color, Form and Position, Distance and Propinquity, Motion and Rest.
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.
The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any reason, is like a mirror which copies every thing placed in front of it without being conscious of their existence.
Art is never completed, only abandoned.
Just as food eaten without appetite is a tedious nourishment, so does study without zeal damage the memory by not assimilating what it absorbs.
The eye which turns from a white object in the light of the sun and goes into a less fully lighted place will see everything as dark.
Painting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen.
Art is never finished, only abandoned.
Everything, in some way, connects to everything else.
All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.
Light is the chaser away of darkness. Shade is the obstruction of light.
Who sows virtue reaps honor.
Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.
Beauty perishes in life, but is immortal in art.
Tears come from the heart and not from the brain.
Fine gold is recognized when it is tested.
It's not enough that you believe what you see. You must also understand what you see.
Obstacles cannot crush me.... he who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.
Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.
Although a man be not a painter, he may have just opinions of the forms of men.
No counsel is more trustworthy than that which is given upon ships that are in peril.
Nothing should be so greatly feared as empty fame.
The air moves like a river and carries the clouds with it; just as running water carries all the things that float upon it.
You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.
He had searched to find a scientific basis for art, and discovered it in the imitation of nature, based on rational experience.
Experience is a truer guide than the words of others.
Nature never breaks her own laws.
The greatest deception which men incur proceeds from their opinions.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Most people, if you give them a book, they sniff around on it awhile, then try to eat it.
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.
There is nothing which deceives us as much as our own judgement.
He who does not value life does not deserve it.
No counsel is more sincere than that given on ships which are in danger.
A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not.