quotes by Leonardo da Vinci

"A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"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."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"The smallest feline is a masterpiece."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself. "
— Leonardo da Vinci

"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"The function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"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."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"As you cannot do what you want,
Want what you can do"
— Leonardo da Vinci

"As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.
"
— Leonardo da Vinci

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"
— Leonardo da Vinci

"Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood."
— Leonardo da Vinci

""The knowledge of all things is possible""
— Leonardo da Vinci

"Intellectual passion drives out sensuality. "
— Leonardo da Vinci

"Art is never finished, only abandoned"
— Leonardo da Vinci

"As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"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."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence. "
— Leonardo da Vinci

"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."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"He who thinks little errs much…"
— Leonardo da Vinci

"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"he who wishes to be rich within a day, will be hanged within a year."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"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."
— Leonardo da Vinci

""God sells us all things at the price of labor.""
— Leonardo da Vinci

"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"
— Leonardo da Vinci

" 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. "
— Leonardo da Vinci

"I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have. "
— Leonardo da Vinci

"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."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"once you have tasted the taste of sky, you will forever look up"
— Leonardo da Vinci (Leonardo on Painting: An Anthology of Writings by Leonardo da Vinci with a Selection of Documents Relating to his Career)

"All sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of Experience, the mother of all Knowledge."
— Leonardo da Vinci (Leonardo's Notebooks)

"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."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"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."
— Leonardo da Vinci

" Learning never exhausts the mind. "
— Leonardo da Vinci

"“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.” "
— Leonardo da Vinci

"A poet knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
— Leonardo da Vinci

""Our life is made by the death of others.""
— Leonardo da Vinci

"It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end."
— Leonardo da Vinci

""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."

"
— Leonardo da Vinci

"Noi tutti siamo esiliati
entro lo cornici di uno strano quadro.
Chi sa questo, viva da grande,
Gli altri sono insetti."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"once you have tasted the taste of sky, you will forever look up"
— Leonardo da Vinci (Leonardo on Painting: An Anthology of Writings by Leonardo da Vinci with a Selection of Documents Relating to his Career)

"He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"he who thinks little errs much"
— Leonardo da Vinci (Leonardo's Notebooks)

"All our knowwledge has its origin in our perceptions"
— Leonardo da Vinci

"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."
— Leonardo da Vinci