Leonardo da Vinci

“It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“People of higher talent work, even if they seem to do nothing.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Darkness is absence of light. Shadow is diminution of light.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The wisest and noblest teacher is nature itself.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“You don’t get into trouble because of the things you don’t know. It is the things you don’t know you don’t know that really get you into a mess.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The motive power is the cause of all life.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.” ~ 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

“I love those who can smile in trouble…” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The moment is timeless.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“I awoke, only to see that the rest of the world is still asleep.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Whoever does not respect life, does not deserve it.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Just as iron rusts from disuse, and stagnant water putrefies, or when cold turns to ice, so our intellect wastes unless it is kept in use.” ~ 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

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Nature alone is the master of true genius.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Time stays long enough for those who use it.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“God sells us all things at the price of labor.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“If you are on the side whence the wind is blowing you will see the trees looking much lighter than you would see them on the other sides; and this is due to the fact that the wind turns up the reverse side of the leaves which in all trees is much whiter than the upper side.” ~ 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

“In time and with water, everything changes.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The knowledge of all things is possible.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Fire is to represent truth because it destroys all sophistry and lies; and the mask is for lying and falsehood which conceal truth.” ~ 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.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The most beautiful words of love are told in silence for a look.” ~ 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

“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“To enjoy – to love a thing for its own sake and for no other reason.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“As you cannot do what you want, want what you can do.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“He who has access to the fountain does not go to the water-pot.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Every action done by nature is done in the shortest way.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Nothing is hidden under the sun.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Savage is he who saves himself.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“No human investigation can be called real science if it cannot be demonstrated mathematically.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The eye, the window of the soul, is the chief means whereby the understanding can most fully and abundantly appreciate the infinite works of Nature; and the ear is second.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Be a mirror, absorb everything around you and still remain the same.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Being willing is not enough. We must do.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“If you are representing a white body let it be surrounded by ample space, because as white has no colour of its own, it is tinged and altered in some degree by the colour of the objects surrounding it.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Just as iron rusts from disuse, even so does inaction spoil the intellect.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Avoid the precepts of those thinkers whose reasoning is not confirmed by experience.” ~ 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

“Not to anticipate is already to moan.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“A gray day provides the best light.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Who sows virtue reaps honor.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The deeper the feeling, the greater the pain.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Learn diligence before speedy execution.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Whoever in debate quotes authority uses not intellect, but memory.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“All thoughts start from emotions.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“I wish to work miracles…” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The supreme misfortune is when theory outstrips performance.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“That painter who has no doubts will achieve little.” ~ 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

“As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Mechanics is the paradise of the mathematical sciences because by means of it one comes to the fruits of mathematics.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.” ~ 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

“Learning never exhausts the mind.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The color of the object illuminated partakes of the color of that which illuminates it.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The greatest geniuses sometimes accomplish more when they work less.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.” ~ 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

“I have offended God and mankind because my work didn’t reach the quality it should have.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Those who are inspired by a model other than Nature, labor in vain.” ~ 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

“An artist’s studio should be a small space because small rooms discipline the mind and large ones distract it.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“He who truly knows has no occasion to shout.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The mind that engages in subjects of too great variety becomes confused and weakened.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The eye is the window of the human body through which it feels its way and enjoys the beauty of the world.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The faculty of imagination is both the rudder and the bridle of the senses.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The five senses are the ministers of the soul.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Your brain is much better than you think; just use it!” ~ 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

“As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Fix your course on a star and you’ll navigate any storm.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Whatever you do in life, if you want to be creative and intelligent, and develop your brain, you must do everything with the awareness that everything, in some way, connects to everything else.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“My body will not be a tomb for other creatures.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“If you find from your own experience that something is a fact and it contradicts what some authority has written down, then you must abandon the authority and base your reasoning on your own findings.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Our life is made by the death of others.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Water is the driving force of all nature.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“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

“He who wishes to be rich within a day, will be hanged within a year.” ~ 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