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A wonderful collection of quotes from Leonardo da Vinci, each fantastic

Submitted by Mike Ciavarella on

A well-spent day brings happy
sleep.

Leonardo da Vinci



All our knowledge has its origins
in our perceptions.

Leonardo da Vinci



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.

Leonardo da
Vinci



Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to
authority is not using

his intelligence; he is just using his
memory.

Leonardo da Vinci



Art is never finished, only
abandoned.

Leonardo da Vinci



As a well-spent day brings
happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy

death.

Leonardo
da Vinci



As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided
between many

studies confounds and saps itself.

Leonardo da
Vinci



Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to
falsehood as light to

darkness.

Leonardo da Vinci



Blinding
ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your
eyes!

Leonardo da Vinci



Common Sense is that which judges
the things given to it by other senses.

Leonardo da
Vinci



Experience does not err. Only your judgments err by
expecting from her

what is not in her power.

Leonardo da
Vinci



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.

Leonardo da Vinci



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

Leonardo da Vinci



He
who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards
ship

without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may
cast.

Leonardo da Vinci



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

Leonardo da Vinci



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.

Leonardo da Vinci



I have been
impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough;

we
must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

Leonardo da
Vinci



I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't
reach the quality

it should have.

Leonardo da Vinci



I
have wasted my hours.

Leonardo da Vinci



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.

Leonardo
da Vinci



In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of
what has passed and

the first of that which comes; so with present
time.

Leonardo da Vinci



Iron rusts from disuse; water loses
its purity from stagnation... even so

does inaction sap the vigor
of the mind.

Leonardo da Vinci



Iron rusts from disuse;
water loses its purity from stagnation... even so

does inaction
sap the vigour of the mind.

Leonardo da Vinci



It had long
since come to my attention that people of accomplishment

rarely
sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and

happened
to things.

Leonardo da Vinci



It's easier to resist at the
beginning than at the end.

Leonardo da Vinci



Just as
courage imperils life, fear protects it.

Leonardo da
Vinci



Learning never exhausts the mind.

Leonardo da
Vinci



Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails.
Some works. You do

more of what works. If it works big, others
quickly copy it. Then you do

something else. The trick is the
doing something else.

Leonardo da Vinci



Life well spent is
long.

Leonardo da Vinci



Marriage is like putting your hand
into a bag of snakes in the hope of

pulling out an eel.

Leonardo
da Vinci



Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least
work are most active.

Leonardo da Vinci



Nature never breaks
her own laws.

Leonardo da Vinci



Nothing strengthens
authority so much as silence.

Leonardo da Vinci



Our life is
made by the death of others.

Leonardo da Vinci



Simplicity
is the ultimate sophistication.

Leonardo da Vinci



The
function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case
of

the genitals and the tongue.

Leonardo da Vinci



The
greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.

Leonardo
da Vinci



The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a
work of art.

Leonardo da Vinci



The noblest pleasure is the
joy of understanding.

Leonardo da Vinci



The poet ranks far
below the painter in the representation of visible

things, and far
below the musician in that of invisible things.

Leonardo da
Vinci



The smallest feline is a masterpiece.

Leonardo da
Vinci



The truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior
intellects.

Leonardo da Vinci



There are three classes of
people: those who see, those who see when they

are shown, those
who do not see.

Leonardo da Vinci



Time stays long enough
for anyone who will use it.

Leonardo da Vinci



Water is the
driving force of all nature.

Leonardo da Vinci



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

Leonardo da
Vinci



Where there is shouting, there is no true
knowledge.

Leonardo da Vinci



While I thought that I was
learning how to live, I have been learning how

to die.

Leonardo
da Vinci



Who sows virtue reaps honor.

Leonardo da
Vinci



Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than
the imagination

when awake?

Leonardo da Vinci



You can
have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.

Leonardo
da Vinci



You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure,
what you do not

understand.

Leonardo da Vinci