Top 450 Leonardo da Vinci Quotes (2024 Update)
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301. “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

302. “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

303. “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

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

312. “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

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

316. “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

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

318. “Good writing comes from good talent.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

322. “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

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

325. “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

326. “A luminous body will appear more brilliant in proportion as it is surrounded by deeper shadow.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

329. “He who fears dangers will not perish by them.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

330. “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

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

338. “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

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

341. “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

342. “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

343. “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

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

345. “We should not desire the impossible.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

347. “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

348. “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

349. “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

350. “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