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Leonardo da Vinci Quotes - Page 22

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Abbreviators do harm to knowledge and to love.

Abbreviators do harm to knowledge and to love.

Leonardo da Vinci
Harm
Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.447, GENERAL PRESS

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.

Leonardo da Vinci
Nature, Travel, Eye
Leonardo da Vinci (2008). “Notebooks”, p.128, OUP Oxford

Inequality is the cause of all local movements.

Leonardo da Vinci
Math, Movement, Causes
Leonardo (da Vinci) (1958). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”

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.

Leonardo da Vinci
Philosophy, Knowing, Ends

The great man presides over all his states of consciousness with obstinate rigor.

Leonardo da Vinci
Men, Discovery, Consciousness

Experience, the interpreter between creative nature and the human race, teaches the action of nature among mortals: how under the constraint of necessity she cannot act otherwise than as reason, who steers her helm, teaches her to act.

Leonardo da Vinci
Race, Creative, Experience
Leonardo da Vinci (2013). “Life, art and science, the thoughts of Leonardo”, p.248, Lulu.com

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.

Leonardo da Vinci
Air, Aviation, Predictions

Lust is the cause of generation Appetite is the support of life Fear or timidity is the prolongation of life, and Fraud the preservation of its instruments.

Leonardo da Vinci
Fear, Support, Lust
Leonardo da Vinci (2008). “Notebooks”, p.263, OUP Oxford

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.

Leonardo da Vinci
Nature, Travel, Wind
Leonardo da Vinci (2008). “Notebooks”, p.135, OUP Oxford

The first object of the painter is to make a flat plane appear as a body in relief and projecting from that plane

Leonardo da Vinci
Relief, Body, Firsts

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.

Leonardo da Vinci
Life, Airplane, Science
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (translation by Edward MacCurdy)

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.

Leonardo da Vinci
Practice, Drawing, Perspective
Leonardo da Vinci (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Leonardo da Vinci (Illustrated)”, p.344, Delphi Classics

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.

Leonardo da Vinci
Men, Law, Bird
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (translation by Edward MacCurdy)

One painter ought never to imitate the manner of any other; because in that case he cannot be called the child of nature, but the grandchild. It is always best to have recourse to nature, which is replete with such abundance of objects, than to the productions of other masters, who learnt everything from her.

Leonardo da Vinci
Art, Children, Abundance
Leonardo da Vinci (2015). “A Treatise on Painting: the Painting Art”, p.205, 谷月社

To any white body receiving the light from the sun, or the air, the shadows will be of a bluish cast.

Leonardo da Vinci
Light, Air, White

I love this site. It was lovingly hand-shaped it. Your soul transformed this into this art. It was perfect. I have tried to create another equal to it... but to no avail, so I will just have to paint the Sistine Chapel.

Leonardo da Vinci
Art, Hands, Perfect

Wherever good fortune enters, envy lays siege to the place and attacks it; and when it departs, sorrow and repentance remain behind.

Leonardo da Vinci
Envy, Sorrow, Siege
Leonardo da Vinci (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Leonardo da Vinci (Illustrated)”, p.814, Delphi Classics

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.

Leonardo da Vinci
Hands, Space, Body

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.

Leonardo da Vinci
Inspirational, Life, Wisdom
Leonardo da Vinci (2008). “Notebooks”, p.246, OUP Oxford

The painter who has no doubt about his own ability will attain very little.

Leonardo da Vinci
Doubt, Littles, Ability

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.

Leonardo da Vinci
Life, Love Is, Towns
Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.446, GENERAL PRESS

I abhor the supreme folly of those who blame the disciples of nature in defiance of those masters who were themselves her pupils

Leonardo da Vinci
Blame, Pupils, Masters
Leonardo Da Vinci (2015). “Thoughts on Art and Life: "Behind the Genius"”, p.118, eKitap Projesi

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.

Leonardo da Vinci
Death, Memories, Loss
Leonardo Da Vinci (2015). “Thoughts on Art and Life: "Behind the Genius"”, p.81, eKitap Projesi

If you are representing a white body let it be surrounded by ample space, because as white has no colour of its own, it is tinged and altered in some degree by the colour of the objects surrounding it

Leonardo da Vinci
White, Space, Degrees
Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.200, GENERAL PRESS

Nature is constrained by the cause of her laws which dwell inborn in her. Variant: Nature is constrained by the order of her own law which lives and works within her.

Leonardo da Vinci
Nature, Order, Law

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