Top 450 Leonardo da Vinci Quotes (2024 Update)
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301. “Happy will they be who lend ear to the words of the dead.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

304. “A good painter has two main objects to paint, man and the intention of his soul. The former is easy, the latter hard as he has to represent it by the attitude and movement of the limbs.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

310. “Shadow is the diminution alike of light and of darkness, and stands between darkness and light.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

311. “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

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

313. “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.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

314. “Every part is disposed to unite with the whole, that it may thereby escape from its own incompleteness.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

315. “The evil which does me no harm is like the good which in no wise avails me.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

317. “Good writing comes from good talent.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

318. “Things that are separate shall be united and acquire such virtue that they will restore to man his lost memory.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

319. “Advertisers constantly invent cures to which there is no disease.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

320. “He only moves toward the perfection of his art whose criticism surpasses his achievement.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

321. “The light and heat of the universe comes from the sun, and its cold and darkness from the withdrawal of the sun.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

322. “The eye transmits its own image through the air to all the objects which face it, and also receives them on its own surface, whence the “sensus communis” takes them and considers them.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

323. “Our body is dependent on heaven and heaven on the Spirit.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

324. “The Book of the science of Mechanics must precede the Book of useful inventions.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

325. “The senses are of the earth, the reason stands apart from them in contemplation.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

326. “When counting, try not to mix chickens with blessings.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

327. “The vivacity and brightness of colors in a landscape will never bear any comparison with a landscape in nature when it is illumined by the sun, unless the painting is placed in such a position that it will receive the same light from the sun as does the landscape.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

328. “Let not your rage or malice destroy a life.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

329. “To lie is vile, to tell truth is excellent, if not noble.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

330. “He who despises painting has no love for the philosophy in nature.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

331. “The grave will fall in upon him who digs it.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

332. “I have solved what color is, however ; I still have no idea about what line is.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

333. “The limiting surface of one thing is the beginning of another.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

334. “Being engulfed in practice without delicate knowledge related to it, is in many ways like entering a ship without knowing where it is headed.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

335. “Experience does not err. Only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

336. “Ask counsel of him who rules himself well.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

337. “For those colours which you wish to be beautiful, always first prepare a pure white ground.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

338. “When you draw a nude, sketch the whole figure and nicely fit the members to it and to each other. Even though you may only finish one portion of the drawing, just make certain that all the parts hang together, so that the study will be useful to you in the future.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

339. “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.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

340. “I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand. Why shells existed on the tops of mountains. How the various circles of water form around the spot which has been struck by a stone, and why a bird sustains itself in the air.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

341. “Nature appears to have been the cruel stepmother rather than the mother of many animals.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

342. “We should not desire the impossible.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

343. “The eye encompasses the beauty of the whole world.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

344. “An artist who lacks the power of self-criticism accomplishes but little. It is good if your work stands higher than your own opinion of it; bad if it is on the same level. But it is a great disaster if your work stands lower than your judgment of it.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

345. “A deaf and dumb person who sees two men in conversation – may nevertheless understand from the attitudes and gestures of the speakers, how well their discussion is getting along.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

346. “The merit of painting lies in the exactness of reproduction. Painting is a science and all sciences are based on mathematics. No human inquiry can be a science unless it pursues its path through mathematical exposition and demonstration.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

347. “The earth is moved from its position by the weight of a tiny bird resting upon it.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

348. “If anyone wishes to see how the soul dwells in its body, let him observe how this body uses its daily habitation; that is to say, if this is devoid of order and confused, the body will be kept in disorder and confusion by its soul...”

— Leonardo da Vinci

349. “Do not imitate one another’s style. If you do, so far as your art is concerned you will be called a grandson, rather than the son of Nature.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

350. “The painter or draftsman ought to be solitary, in order that the well-being of the body not sap the vigour of the mind.”

— Leonardo da Vinci