Leonardo da Vinci Quotes
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301. “Shadow is the diminution alike of light and of darkness, and stands between darkness and light.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

302. “Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

303. “Good writing comes from good talent.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

305. “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

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

308. “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

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

310. “Truth is so excellent, that if it praises but small things they become noble.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

311. “That which has no limitations, has no form.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

312. “Avoid studies of which the result dies with the worker.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

313. “The spirit desires to remain with its body, because, without the organic instruments of that body, it can neither act, nor feel anything.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

317. “I abhor the supreme folly of those who blame the disciples of nature in defiance of those masters who were themselves her pupils.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

318. “Make an effort to collect the good features from many beautiful faces.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

322. “The study of what is excellent is food for the mind and body.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

323. “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

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

327. “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

328. “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

329. “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

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

332. “We should not desire the impossible.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

333. “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

334. “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

335. “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

336. “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

337. “One’s thoughts turn towards Hope.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

338. “We must doubt the certainty of everything which passes through the senses, but how much more ought we to doubt things contrary to the senses, such as the existence of God and the soul.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

339. “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

340. “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

341. “Learning acquired in youth arrests the evil of old age.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

342. “The water which rises in the mountain is the blood which keeps the mountain in life.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

343. “What induces you, oh man, to depart from your home in town, to leave parents and friends, and go to the countryside over mountains and valleys, if it is not for the beauty of the world of nature?”

— Leonardo da Vinci

344. “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.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

345. “I am still hopeful. A falcon, Time. But the coincidence is probably accidental.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

346. “No one should ever imitate the style of another because, with regard to art, he will be called a nephew and not a child of nature.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

347. “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.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

348. “Abbreviators do harm to knowledge and to love.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

349. “It is better to imitate ancient than modern work.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

350. “O admirable necessity! O powerful action! What mind can penetrate your nature? What language can express this marvel? None, to be sure. This is where human discourse turns toward the contemplation of the divine.”

— Leonardo da Vinci