Quotes from Leonardo da Vinci

No human investigation can be called real knowledge if it does not pass through mathematical demonstrations; and if you say that the kinds of knowledge that begin and end in the mind have any value as truth, this cannot be conceded, but rather must be denied for many reasons, and first of all because in such mental discussions there is no experimentation, without which nothing provides certainty of itself.

I believe man will fly and I base this assumption on the fact that God has blessed us with minds that are capable of imagining it. Anything that can be dreamt of will eventually be built. Anyone who says otherwise is a fool. (As quoted by a fictional Leonardo in DaVinci Demons)

He who does not value life does not deserve it.

As iron rusts when not used, and water gets foul from standing or turns to ice when exposed to cold, so the intellect degenerates without exercise. -Leonard Da Vinci

Most people, if you give them a book, they sniff around on it awhile, then try to eat it.

That which can be lost cannot be deemed riches. Virtue is our true wealth and the true reward of its possessor; it cannot be lost, it never deserts us until life leaves us. Hold property and external riches with fear; they often leave their possessor scorned and mocked at for having lost them.

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the Earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art. 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.

A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not." ~ Leonardo da Vinci

Wenn auch der menschliche Geist durch vielfache Erfindungen mit verschiedenen Instrumenten auf dasselbe Ziel zugeht, nie wird er eine Erfindung machen, die schöner, leichter und kürzer wäre als die Natur.

There is nothing which deceives us as much as our own judgement.

No counsel is more sincere than that given on ships which are in danger.

art is never finished, only abandoned

Fine gold is recognized when it is tested.

Painting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen.

Obstacles cannot crush me...he who is fixed to a star does not change his mind

Everything in some way connects to everything else. Leonardo Da Vinci

A simplicidade é o último grau de sofisticação

It's not enough that you believe what you see. You must also understand what you see.

Wer wenig denkt, irrt viel.

Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.

Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears and never regrets.

I expose to men the origin of their first, and perhaps second, reason for existing

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