Leonardo da Vinci
The water which rises in the mountains is the blood which keeps the mountain in life.Collection: Blood
Many will think they may reasonably blame me by alleging that my proofs are opposed to the authority of certain men held in the highest reverence by their inexperienced judgments; not considering that my works are the issue of pure and simple experience.Collection: Simple
When you are painting you should take a flat mirror and often look at your work within it, and it will then be seen in reverse, and will appear to be by the hand of some other master, and you will be better able to judge of its faults than in any other way.Collection: Mirrors
I have solved what color is, however ; I still have no idea about what line is.Collection: Color
Make your faces so that they do not all have the same expression, as one sees with most painters, but give them different expression, according to age, complexion, and good or bad character.Collection: Character
Good culture is born of a good disposition; and since the cause is more to be praised than the effect, I will rather praise a good disposition without culture, than good culture without the disposition.Collection: Culture
Men and words are ready made, and you, O Painter, if you do not know how to make your figures move, are like an orator who knows not how to use his words.Collection: Moving
Of several bodies, all equally large and equally distant, that which is most brightly illuminated will appear to the eye nearest and largest.Collection: Nature
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.Collection: Air
One can have no more mastery over the environment, than one has over himself.Collection: Mastery
The evil which does me no harm is like the good which in no wise avails me.Collection: Wise
An infinite number of men will sell publicly and unhindered things of the very highest price, without leave from the Master of it; while it never was theirs nor in their power; and human justice will not prevent it.Collection: Men
The bones of the Dead will be seen to govern the fortunes of him who moves them.Collection: Moving
The 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.Collection: Flower
To speak ill of a good person is not truly good, all in all.Collection: Good Person
The knowledge of the past times and of the places of the earth is both an ornament and nutriment to the human mind.Collection: Intelligent
Thirst will parch your tongue and your body will waste through lack of sleep ere you can describe in words that which painting instantly sets before the eye.Collection: Sleep
To make a perfume, take some rose water and wash your hands in it, then take a lavender flower and rub it with your palms, and you will achieve the desired effectCollection: Flower
Abbreviators do harm to knowledge and to love.Collection: Harm
Some promises and time disappoint usCollection: Promise
Oh! Speculators on things, boast not of knowing the things that nature ordinarily brings about; but rejoice if you know the end of those things which you yourself device.Collection: Philosophy
Inequality is the cause of all local movements.Collection: Math
Very great charm of shadow and light is to be found in the faces of those who sit in the doors of dark houses. The eye of the spectator sees that part of the face which is in shadow lost in the darkness of the house, and that part of the face which is lit draws its brilliancy from the splendour of the sky. From this intensification of light and shade the face gains greatly in relief and beauty by showing the subtlest shadows in the light part and the subtlest lights in the dark part.Collection: Nature
The great man presides over all his states of consciousness with obstinate rigor.Collection: Men
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.Collection: Air
The first object of the painter is to make a flat plane appear as a body in relief and projecting from that planeCollection: Relief
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.Collection: Nature
Fire destroys all sophistry, that is deceit; and maintains truth alone, that is gold.Collection: Fire
A man was desired to rise from bed because the sun was already up. He replied: "If I had as far to go and as much to do as he has, I should be up by now; but having but a little way to go, I shall not get up yet."Collection: Men
The Medici made me and the Medici destroyed me.Collection: Made
A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law, which instrument it is within the capacity of man to reproduce with all its movements, but not with a corresponding degree of strength, though it is deficient only in the power of maintaining equilibrium. We may therefore say that such an instrument constructed by man is lacking in nothing except the life of the bird, and this life must needs be supplied from that of man.Collection: Life
Savage is he who saves himself.Collection: Savages
The body of the earth is of the nature of a fish... because it draws water as its breath instead of air.Collection: Science
Those who are in love with practice without knowledge are like the sailor who gets into a ship without rudder or compass and who never can be certain whether he is going. Practice must always be founded on sound theory, and to this Perspective is the guide and the gateway; and without this nothing can be done well in the matter of drawing.Collection: Practice
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.Collection: Inspirational
The painter who has no doubt about his own ability will attain very little.Collection: Doubt
Wherever good fortune enters, envy lays siege to the place and attacks it; and when it departs, sorrow and repentance remain behind.Collection: Envy
I abhor the supreme folly of those who blame the disciples of nature in defiance of those masters who were themselves her pupilsCollection: Blame
Affective gestures pointing to things near either in time or space should be made with the hand not very far from the body of the person pointing; and if these things are distant, the hand of the painter should be more extended and the face turned toward the person to whom he is addressing the demonstration.Collection: Hands
Fame alone raises herself to Heaven, because virtuous things are in favour with God.Collection: Heaven
It reflects no great honour on a painter to be able to execute one thing well.Collection: Able
When that which loves is united to the thing beloved it can rest there; when the burden is laid down it finds rest there. There will be eternal fame also for the inhabitants of that town, constructed and enlarged by him.Collection: Life
Every loss which we incur leaves behind it vexation in the memory, save the greatest loss of all, that is, death, which annihilates the memory, together with life.Collection: Death
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.Collection: Inspirational
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.Collection: Art
Make your work to be in keeping with your purposeCollection: Inspirational
He who truly knows has no occasion to shout.Collection: Life
Realize that everything connects to everything else.Collection: Karma