Leonardo da Vinci

Artist

1452-04-15 – 1519-05-02

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath known for major works in painting, engineering, and anatomical study. His notebooks and artworks, including the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, made him one of historys most influential artists.

Quotes by Leonardo da Vinci

It is an acknowledged fact that we perceive errors in the work of others more readily than in our own.
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If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself or even less in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight.
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Water is the driving force in nature.
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Just as a well-filled day brings blessed sleep, so a well-employed life brings a blessed death
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Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.
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God sells us all things at the price of labor.
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The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard.
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Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.
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art is never finished, only abandoned
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Painting is mute poetry, and poetry is blind painting
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I abhor the supreme folly of those who blame the disciples of nature in defiance of those masters who were themselves her pupils
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The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.
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One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.
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What is fair in men, passes away, but not so in art
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Reprove your friend in secret and praise him in public.
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Nothing should be so greatly feared as empty fame.
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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
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Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.
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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.
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If the painter wishes to see beauties that charm him, it lies in his power to create them, and if he wishes to see monstrosities that are frightful, ridiculous, or truly pitiable, he is lord and God thereof.
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