Leonardo da Vinci Quotes
Born: April 15, 1452
Leonardo da Vinci, the quintessential Renaissance man, transcended art to become a philosopher of boundless curiosity. His legacy is not merely the Mona Lisa or The Last Supper, but a profound worldview that fused scientific observation with spiritual wonder. He believed that wisdom is born from experience, that nature is the ultimate teacher, and that a life well-lived is a life of relentless inquiry. His quotes resonate because they strip away pretense, urging us to embrace simplicity, resilience, and the sublime beauty of learning. In his words, we find a timeless guide to living with depth, purpose, and awe.
Leonardo da Vinci Quotes (70)
"Learning never exhausts the mind."
— Leonardo Da Vinci"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions."
— Leonardo Da Vinci"Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it."
— 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"Art is never finished, only abandoned."
— 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"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"I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have."
— Leonardo Da Vinci"Tears come from the heart and not from the brain."
— Leonardo Da Vinci"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence."
— Leonardo Da Vinci"Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master."
— 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"Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge."
— Leonardo Da Vinci"The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding."
— Leonardo Da Vinci"Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity."
— 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"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art."
— Leonardo Da Vinci"Who sows virtue reaps honor."
— Leonardo Da Vinci"The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art."
— Leonardo Da Vinci"Water is the driving force of all nature."
— Leonardo Da Vinci"Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?"
— Leonardo Da Vinci"As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death."
— Leonardo Da Vinci"Science is the captain, and practice the soldiers."
— Leonardo Da Vinci"While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die."
— Leonardo Da Vinci"A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not."
— Leonardo Da Vinci"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"
— 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"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"Intellectual passion drives out sensuality."
— Leonardo Da Vinci