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Leonardo da Vinci Quotes - Page 23

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I say that in narrative paintings one should mingle direct contraries close by, because they produce strong contrasts with one another, and all the more so when they are very close together; that is, the ugly next to

I say that in narrative paintings one should mingle direct contraries close by, because they produce strong contrasts with one another, and all the more so when they are very close together; that is, the ugly next to the beautiful, the big to the small, the old to the young, the strong to the weak; in this way you will vary as much as possible and close by.

Leonardo da Vinci
Beautiful, Strong, Together

To speak of this subject you must... explain the nature of the resistance of the air, in the second the anatomy of the bird and its wings, in the third the method of working the wings in their various movements, in the fourth the power of the wings and the tail when the wings are not being moved and when the wind is favourable to serve as guide in various movements.

Leonardo da Vinci
Nature, Travel, Air
Leonardo Da Vinci (1938). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”

If a man has a tent made of linen of which the apertures have all been stopped up, and be it twelve bracchia across (over twenty-five feet) and twelve in depth, he will be able to throw himself down from any height without sustaining injury. [His concept of the parachute.]

Leonardo da Vinci
Men, Feet, Twenties

The painter who draws by practise and judgment of the eye without the use of reason is like the mirror which reproduces within itself all the objects which are set opposite to it without knowledge of the same.

Leonardo da Vinci
Eye, Mirrors, Opposites
Leonardo (da Vinci) (1965). “Leonardo Da Vinci on Painting: A Lost Book (Libro A)”, p.130, Univ of California Press

No one should ever imitate the style of another because, with regard to art, he will be called a nephew and not a child of nature.

Leonardo da Vinci
Art, Children, Nephew

Those who fall in love with practice without science are like a sailor who enters a ship without a helm or a compass, and who never can be certain whither he is going.

Leonardo da Vinci
Falling In Love, Practice, Ships
Leonardo da Vinci (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Leonardo da Vinci (Illustrated)”, p.809, Delphi Classics

Every part is disposed to unite with the whole, that it may thereby escape from its own incompleteness.

Leonardo da Vinci
May, Whole, Incompleteness
Leonardo (da Vinci) (1957). “Notebooks”

A luminous body will appear more brilliant in proportion as it is surrounded by deeper shadow.

Leonardo da Vinci
Shadow, Body, Brilliant
Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.105, GENERAL PRESS

If anyone wishes to see how the soul dwells in its body, let him observe how this body uses its daily habitation; that is to say, if this is devoid of order and confused, the body will be kept in disorder and confusion by its soul.

Leonardo da Vinci
Confused, Order, Confusion
Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.440, GENERAL PRESS

He who despises painting has no love for the philosophy in nature.

Leonardo da Vinci
Philosophy, Painting, Despise
Leonardo (da Vinci) (1957). “Notebooks”

Demetrius was wont to say that there was no difference between the words and speech of the unskilled and ignorant and the sounds and rumblings caused by the stomach being full of superfluous wind. This he said, not without reason, for, as he held, it did not in the least matter from what part of them the voice emanated, whether from the lower parts or the mouth, since the one and the other were of equal worth and importance.

Leonardo da Vinci
Wind, Voice, Differences

The light for drawing from nature should come from the North in order that it may not vary. And if you have it from the South, keep the window screened with cloth, so that with the sun shining the whole day the light may not vary. The height of the light so arranged as that every object shall cast a shadow on the ground of the same length as itself.

Leonardo da Vinci
Order, Drawing, Light
Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.183, GENERAL PRESS

The eye which turns from a white object in the light of the sun and goes into a less fully lighted place will see everything as dark.

Leonardo da Vinci
Eye, Dark, Intelligent
Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.37, GENERAL PRESS

Nature has placed in the front part of man, as he moves, all those parts which when struck cause him to feel pain; and this is felt in the joints of the legs, the forehead and the nose, and has been so devised for the preservation of man, because if such pain were not felt in these limbs they would be destroyed by the many blows they receive.

Leonardo da Vinci
Pain, Moving, Blow
Leonardo da Vinci (2013). “Life, art and science, the thoughts of Leonardo”, p.271, Lulu.com

The fox when it sees a flock of herons or magpies or birds of that kind, suddenly flings himself on the ground with his mouth open to look as he were dead; and these birds want to peck at his tongue, and he bites off their heads.

Leonardo da Vinci
Bird, Looks, Mouths
Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.459, GENERAL PRESS

Oh! how foul a thing, that we should see the tongue of one animal in the guts of another.

Leonardo da Vinci
Animal, Tongue, Should
Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.484, GENERAL PRESS

O time, swift robber of all created things, how many kings, how many nations hast thou undone, and how many changes of states and of various events have happened since the wondrous forms of this fish perished here in this cavernous and winding recess. Now destroyed by time thou liest patiently in this confined space with bones stripped and bare; serving as a support and prop for the superimposed mountain.

Leonardo da Vinci
Time, Kings, Space
Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.453, GENERAL PRESS

Things severed shall be united and shall acquire of themselves such virtue that they shall restore to men their lost memory: - That is the papyrus sheets, which are formed out of several strips and preserve the memory of the thoughts and deeds of men.

Leonardo da Vinci
Memories, Men, Deeds
Leonardo (da Vinci) (1958). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”

All our knowledge hast its origins in our perceptions … In nature there is no effect without a cause … Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments … Science is the observation of things possible, whether present or past; prescience is the knowledge of things which may come to pass.

Leonardo da Vinci
Past, Perception, May

As regards this vice, we read that the peacock is more guilty of it than any other animal. For it is always contemplating the beauty of its tail, which it spreads in the form of a wheel, and by its cries attracts to itself the gaze of the creatures that surround it. And this is the last vice to be conquered.

Leonardo da Vinci
Animal, Vanity, Vices
Leonardo Da Vinci (2015). “Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci: Complete & Illustrated”, p.939, eKitap Projesi via PublishDrive

Perspective is nothing more than a rational demonstration applied to the consideration of how objects in front of the eye transmit their image to it, by means of a pyramid of lines. The Pyramid is the name I apply to the lines which, starting from the surface and edges of each object, converge from a distance and meet in a single point.

Leonardo da Vinci
Distance, Eye, Mean
Leonardo da Vinci (1938). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Complete”, p.49, Library of Alexandria

O mighty and once living instrument of formative nature. Incapable of availing thyself of thy vast strength thou hast to abandon a life of stillness and to obey the law which God and time gave to procreative nature.

Leonardo da Vinci
Law, Instruments, Abandon
Leonardo Da Vinci “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, Lulu.com

If you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. Let us hope that.

Leonardo da Vinci
Patience, Hurt, Clothes

A bird maintains itself in the air by imperceptible balancing, when near to the mountains or lofty ocean crags; it does this by means of the curves of the winds which as they strike against these projections, being forced to preserve their first impetus bend their straight course towards the sky with divers revolutions, at the beginning of which the birds come to a stop with their wings open, receiving underneath themselves the continual buffetings of the reflex courses of the winds.

Leonardo da Vinci
Ocean, Mean, Science

Painting embraces and contains within itself all the things which nature produces or which results from the fortuitous actions of men... he is but a poor master who makes only a single figure well.

Leonardo da Vinci
Men, Action, Painting
Leonardo da Vinci (2008). “Notebooks”, p.213, OUP Oxford

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