Best 493 quotes of Leonardo Da Vinci on MyQuotes

He who can copy can do.

He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.

He who does not understand the supreme certainty of mathematics is wallowing in confusion.

He who draws... ought to take his position so that the eye of the figure he is drawing is on a level with his own... because, generally, figures or people whom you meet in the streets all have their eyes at the same level as yours, and if you make them higher or lower you will find that your portrait will not resemble them.

He who has access to the fountain does not go to the water-pot.

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

He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.

He who never puts his trust in any man will never be deceived.

He who truly knows has no occasion to shout.

He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.

He who wishes to see how the soul inhabits the body should look to see how that body uses its daily surroundings. If the dwelling is dirty and neglected, the body will be kept by its soul in the same condition, dirty and neglected.

How many emperors and how many princes have lived and died and no record of them remains, and they only sought to gain dominions and riches in order that their fame might be ever-lasting.

How painting surpasses all human works by reason of the subtle possibilities which it contains.

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.

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

I am never weary of being useful... In serving others I cannot do enough. No labor is sufficient to tire me.

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

I awoke, only to see that the rest of the world is still asleep.

If a man has a tent made of linen of which the apertures have all been stopped up, and be it twelve bracchia across (over twenty-five feet) and twelve in depth, he will be able to throw himself down from any height without sustaining injury. [His concept of the parachute.]

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.

If on your own or by the criticism of others you discover error in your work, correct it then and there; otherwise in exposing your work to the public, you will expose your error also.

If the thing loved is base, the lover becomes base.

If we make mistakes in our first compositions and do not know them, we may not amend them.

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.

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

If you call painting dumb poetry, the painter may call poetry blind painting.

If you cause your ship to stop and place the head of a long tube in the water and place the outer extremity to your ear, you will hear ships at a great distance from you.

If you do not rest on the good foundation of nature, you will labour with little honor and less profit.

If you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. Let us hope that.

If you put on more garments, the cold cannot reach you. Similarly, increase your patience and concentration and even great injuries cannot vex your mind.

If you throw a stone in a pond... the waves which strike against the shores are thrown back towards the spot where the stone struck; and on meeting other waves they never intercept each other's course... In a small pond one and the same stroke gives birth to many motions of advance and recoil.

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

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing.

I have discovered that a screw-shaped device such as this, if it is well made from starched linen, will rise in the air if turned quickly.

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.

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

I know very well that because I am unlettered some presumptuous people will think they have the right to criticize me, saying that I am an uncultured man. What stupid fools! Do they not know that I could reply to them as Marius did to the Roman patricians: "Do those who pride themselves on the works of other men claim to challenge mine?

I love this site. It was lovingly hand-shaped it. Your soul transformed this into this art. It was perfect. I have tried to create another equal to it... but to no avail, so I will just have to paint the Sistine Chapel.

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.

I'm not contented to capture the world. I want to change it.

Inaction saps the vigor of the mind.

In an atmosphere of uniform density the most distant things seen through it, such as the mountains, in consequence of the great quantity of atmosphere which is between your eye and them, will appear blue. Therefore you should make the building... wall which is more distant less defined and bluer... five times as far away, make five times as blue.

Inequality is the cause of all local movements.

In fact, whatever exists in the universe, in essence, in appearance, in the imagination, the painter has first in his mind and then in his hands ... it lies in his power to create them . . .

In her (nature's) inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.

In life beauty perishes, but not in art.

Intellectual passion dries out sensuality.

Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.

In the days of thy youth seek to obtain that which shall compensate the losses of thy old age.

In time and with water, everything changes.