Leonardo da Vinci
I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand. Why thunder lasts longer than that which causes it, and why immediately on its creation the lightning becomes visible to the eye while thunder requires time to travel. 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. These questions and other strange phenomena engaged my thought throughout my life.
Leonardo da VinciThere are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.
Leonardo da VinciJust as iron rusts from disuse, even so does inaction spoil the intellect.
Leonardo da VinciAnyone who in discussion relies upon authority uses, not his understanding, but rather his memory.
Leonardo da VinciWhile I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.
Leonardo da VinciI have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.
Leonardo da VinciPeople react to fear, not love - they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true.
Leonardo da VinciOur life is made by the death of others.
Leonardo da VinciAs every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.
Leonardo da VinciThe men of experiment are like the ant; they only collect and use. But the bee . . . gathers its materials from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own.
Leonardo da VinciThe truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior intellects.
Leonardo da VinciMen of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.
Leonardo da VinciIt's easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.
Leonardo da VinciThe function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue.
Leonardo da VinciHe who does not punish evil commands it to be done.
Leonardo da VinciIron 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 VinciArt is never finished, only abandoned.
Leonardo da VinciThe poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far below the musician in that of invisible things.
Leonardo da VinciA good painter is to paint two main things, men and the working of man's mind.
Leonardo da VinciLearning acquired in youth arrests the evil of old age; and if you understand that old age has wisdom for its food, you will so conduct yourself in youth that your old age will not lack for nourishment.
Leonardo da VinciEvery 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 VinciWhere there is shouting there is no true knowledge.
Leonardo da VinciJust as eating contrary to the inclination is injurious to the health, so study without desire sports the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
Leonardo da VinciThe eye sees a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination awake.
Leonardo da VinciOnce you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, there you long to return.
Leonardo da Vinci