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
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
All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part. – Leonardo da Vinci
It seems that it had been destined before that I should occupy myself so thoroughly with the vulture, for it comes to my mind as a very early memory, when I was still in the cradle, a vulture came down to me, he opened my mouth with his tail and struck me a few times with his tail against my lips. – Leonardo da Vinci
Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments. – 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
Medicine is the restoration of discordant elements; sickness is the discord of the elements infused into the living body. – 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
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
Man and animals are in reality vehicles and conduits of food, tombs of animals, hostels of Death, coverings that consume, deriving life by the death of others. – 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
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
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
The mind of the painter must resemble a mirror, which always takes the colour of the object it reflects and is completely occupied by the images of as many objects as are in front of it. – Leonardo da Vinci
The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any reason, is like a mirror which copies every thing placed in front of it without being conscious of their existence. – 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
Just as food eaten without appetite is a tedious nourishment, so does study without zeal damage the memory by not assimilating what it absorbs. – Leonardo da Vinci
