Leonardo da Vinci Quotes
Page 6 of 10

251. “Virtue is our true wealth and the true reward of its possessor; it cannot be lost, it never deserts us until life leaves us.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

252. “There is nothing which deceives us as much as our own judgement.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

253. “Especially learn how to see.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

254. “Fame alone raises herself to Heaven, because virtuous things are in favour with God.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

255. “Love, Fear, and Esteem, – Write these on three stones.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

256. “Fear arises sooner than anything else.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

257. “Poor is the man who desires a lot.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

258. “There are many kinds of beauty as people who possess it.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

259. “The good painter must paint two things: a person and the essence of his soul.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

260. “When you are alone you are all your own.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

261. “One can have no more mastery over the environment, than one has over himself.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

262. “I shall do down in history as the man who opened a door!”

— Leonardo da Vinci

263. “For in truth great love is born of great knowledge of the thing loved.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

264. “While you are alone you are entirely your own master and if you have one companion you are but half your own, and the less so in proportion to the indiscretion of his behavior.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

265. “Threats alone, are the weapons of the threatened man.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

266. “A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law, which instrument it is within the capacity of man to reproduce with all its movements.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

267. “A wave is never found alone, but is mingled with the other waves.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

268. “There is nothing that deceives us more than our own judgment when used to give an opinion on our own works. It is sound in judging the work of our enemies but not that of our friends, for hate and love are two of the most powerfully motivating factors found among living things.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

269. “Drawing is based upon perspective, which is nothing else than a thorough knowledge of the function of the eye.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

270. “O sleepers! what a thing is slumber! Sleep resembles death. Ah, why then dost thou not work in such wise as that after death thou mayst retain a resemblance to perfect life, when, during life, thou art in sleep so like to the hapless dead?”

— Leonardo da Vinci

271. “We might say that the earth has the spirit of growth; that its flesh is the soil.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

272. “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.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

273. “He who can copy can do.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

274. “A long life is a life well spent.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

275. “Black is like a broken vessel, which is deprived of the capacity to contain anything.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

276. “Test knowledge through experience, be prepared to make mistakes, and be persistent about it.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

278. “To me it seems that those sciences are vain and full of error which are not born of experience, mother of all certainty, first-hand experience which in its origins, or means, or end has passed through one of the five senses.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

279. “Happy will they be who lend ear to the words of the dead.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

280. “Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

281. “Fire destroys all sophistry, that is deceit; and maintains truth alone, that is gold.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

282. “Perspective is the rein and rudder of painting.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

283. “It vexes me greatly that having to earn my living has forced me to interrupt the work and to attend to small matters.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

284. “What is fair in men, passes away, but not so in art.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

285. “The soul can never be corrupted with the corruption of the body, but it is like the wind which causes the sound of the organ, and which ceases to produce a good effect when a pipe is spoilt.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

286. “For youth, everything is sport.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

287. “A painter was asked why, since he made such beautiful figures, which were but dead things, his children were so ugly; to which the painter replied that he made his pictures by day, and his children by night.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

288. “He who in reasoning cites authority is making use of his memory rather than of his intellect.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

289. “We know well that mistakes are more easily detected in the works of others than in one’s own.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

290. “When taking a selfie, remember the most natural pose is still best.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

291. “The human being, creature of eyes, needs the image.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

292. “You grow in reputation like bread in the hands of a child.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

293. “I have always felt it is my destiny to build a machine that would allow man to fly.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

294. “Slender certainty is better than portentous falsehood.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

295. “The eye – which sees all objects reversed – retains the images for some time.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

296. “A natural action is accomplished in the briefest manner.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

297. “The organ of perception acts more readily than judgment.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

298. “To discover the soul living in somebody’s body, we watch the surrounding of the body, and if it’s messy and disordered, so is the soul.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

299. “O painter skilled in anatomy, beware lest the undue prominence of the bones, sinews and muscles cause you to become a wooden painter from the desire to make your nude figures reveal all.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

300. “Man’s external form, marvellously constructed, is not much as compared with the divine soul that dwells inside that structure.”

— Leonardo da Vinci