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Leonardo da Vinci Quotes - Page 20

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Here is a thing which the more you fear and avoid it the nearer you approach to it, and this is misery; the more you flee from it the more miserable and restless you will become.

Here is a thing which the more you fear and avoid it the nearer you approach to it, and this is misery; the more you flee from it the more miserable and restless you will become.

Leonardo da Vinci
Misery, Miserable, Restless
Leonardo Da Vinci (2015). “Thoughts on Art and Life: "Behind the Genius"”, p.95, eKitap Projesi

It reflects no great honour on a painter to be able to execute one thing well.

Leonardo da Vinci
Able, Painter, Competence
Leonardo da Vinci (2015). “A Treatise on Painting: the Painting Art”, p.55, 谷月社

Those who become enamoured of the art, without having previously applied to the diligent study of the scientific part of it, may be compared to mariners who put to the sea in a ship without rudder or compass and therefore cannot be certain of arriving at the wished for port.

Leonardo da Vinci
Art, Sea, Arriving
Leonardo Da Vinci (2015). “A Treatise on Painting: "Translated from the Original Italian"”, p.216, eKitap Projesi via PublishDrive

In the days of thy youth seek to obtain that which shall compensate the losses of thy old age.

Leonardo da Vinci
Loss, Age, Youth
Leonardo da Vinci (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Leonardo da Vinci (Illustrated)”, p.965, Delphi Classics

I am not to blame for putting forward, in the course of my work on science, any general rule derived from a previous conclusion.

Leonardo da Vinci
Blame, Conclusion, Courses
Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.28, GENERAL PRESS

We may call painting the grandchild of nature.

Leonardo da Vinci
Grandchildren, May, Painting

All the bystanders at an event worthy of note adopt various gestures of admiration when contemplating the occurrence.

Leonardo da Vinci
Bystanders, Events, Gestures

Perspective is the rein and rudder of painting.

Leonardo da Vinci
Perspective, Painting, Rudders

Medicine is the restoration of discordant elements.

Leonardo da Vinci
Medicine, Restoration, Elements
Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.339, GENERAL PRESS

Nature is so delightful and abundant in its variations that among trees of the same kind there would not be found one which nearly resembles another, and not only the plants as a whole, but among their branches, leaves, and fruit, will not be found one which is precisely like another.

Leonardo da Vinci
Nature, Travel, Variation
"The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci".

Why are the bones of great fishes, and oysters and corals and various other shells and sea-snails, found on the high tops of mountains that border the sea, in the same way in which they are found in the depths of the sea?

Leonardo da Vinci
Science, Oysters, Sea
Leonardo (da Vinci), Carlo Pedretti, Martin Kemp, Owen Gingerich, American Museum of Natural History (1996). “Codex Leicester: a masterpiece of science”

There is no object so large but that at a great distance from the eye it does not appear smaller than a smaller object near.

Leonardo da Vinci
Inspirational, Life, Distance
Leonardo da Vinci (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Leonardo da Vinci (Illustrated)”, p.374, Delphi Classics

The limiting surface of one thing is the beginning of another.

Leonardo da Vinci
Intelligent, Surface, One Thing
Leonardo da Vinci (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Leonardo da Vinci (Illustrated)”, p.352, Delphi Classics

Be eager to lend a patient ear to the opinions of others and think long and hard whether whoever finds fault has reason or not to censure you. And if the answer is yes, correct the fault. If no, give the impression that you have not heard him, or if he is a man whom you respect, explain to him why he is mistaken.

Leonardo da Vinci
Men, Thinking, Giving

The eye - which sees all objects reversed - retains the images for some time.

Leonardo da Vinci
Eye, Intelligent, Objects
Leonardo da Vinci (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Leonardo da Vinci (Illustrated)”, p.349, Delphi Classics

Shadows which you see with difficulty, and whose boundaries you cannot define... these you should not represent as finished or sharply defined, for the result would be that your work would seem wooden.

Leonardo da Vinci
Light, Shadow, Would Be
Leonardo (da Vinci) (1938). “The notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci”

I know very well that because I am unlettered some presumptuous people will think they have the right to criticize me, saying that I am an uncultured man. What stupid fools! Do they not know that I could reply to them as Marius did to the Roman patricians: "Do those who pride themselves on the works of other men claim to challenge mine?

Leonardo da Vinci
Education, Stupid, Pride

How painting surpasses all human works by reason of the subtle possibilities which it contains.

Leonardo da Vinci
Art, Painting, Reason
Leonardo (da Vinci) (1957). “Notebooks”

Weight is caused by one element being situated in another; and it moves by the shortest line towards its centre, not by its own choice, not because the centre draws it to itself, but because the other intervening element cannot withstand it.

Leonardo da Vinci
Nature, Travel, Moving
Leonardo da Vinci (2008). “Notebooks”, p.58, OUP Oxford

Why seek to embarrass [the artist] with vanities foreign to his quietness? Know you not that certain sciences require the whole man, leaving no part of him at leisure for your trifles?

Leonardo da Vinci
Artist, Men, Vanity

Life well spent is long.

Leonardo da Vinci
Inspirational, Life, Long
Irma A. Richter (ed.) 'Selections from the Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci' (World's Classics, 1952)

If we make mistakes in our first compositions and do not know them, we may not amend them.

Leonardo da Vinci
Mistake, May, Firsts

Do not imitate one another's style. If you do, so far as your art is concerned you will be called a grandson, rather than the son of Nature.

Leonardo da Vinci
Art, Son, Style
da Vinci Leonardo, Leonardo (da Vinci) (1990). “Leonardo da Vinci's advice to artists”, Running Press Book Publishers

Avoid studies of which the result dies with the worker.

Leonardo da Vinci
Study, Results, Workers
Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.443, GENERAL PRESS

It is no small benefit on finding oneself in bed in the dark to go over again in the imagination the main lines of the forms previously studied, or other noteworthy things conceived by ingenious speculation.

Leonardo da Vinci
Dark, Imagination, Lines
Leonardo (da Vinci) (1938). “The notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci”

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