Browse Quotes — Da Vinci Beta Reader

"Learning never exhausts the mind."

"The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding."

"Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in."

"Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen."

"Art is never finished, only abandoned."

"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art."

"The painter has the universe in his mind and hands."

"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."

"Water is the driving force of all nature."

"The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art."

"Experience does not err. Only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power."

"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence."

"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions."

"He who does not punish evil commands it to be done."

"Beauty perishes in life, but is immortal in art."

"The eye, which is called the window of the soul, is the principal means by which the central sense can most completely and abundantly appreciate the infinite works of Nature."

"Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve."

"I love those who can smile in trouble."

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

"Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it."

"men who desire nothing but material riches and are absolutely devoid of the desire for wisdom, which is the sustenance and truly dependable wealth of the mind."

"The good painter has to paint two principal things, man and the intention of his mind."

"Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master."

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do."

"There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, and those who do not see."

"Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known."

"Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation; even so does inaction drain the vigor of the mind."

"He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss."

"Obstacles cannot crush me; every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind."

"The eye encompasses the beauty of the whole world."

"Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness."

"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."

"Just as food eaten without appetite is a tedious nourishment, so does study without zeal damage the memory by not assimilating what it absorbs."

"Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge."

"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."

"I have wasted my hours."

"As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and undoes itself."

"The function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue."

"The acquisition of knowledge is always of use to the intellect, because it may thus drive out useless things and retain the good."

"Who sows virtue reaps honor."

"Every action needs to be prompted by a motive."

"Nature never breaks her own laws."

"The smallest feline is a masterpiece."

"Wisdom is the daughter of experience."

"The greatest wisdom is to see one's own foolishness."

"The greatest secret is that the thing which is most difficult to know is the thing closest to you — yourself."

"A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law — an instrument it is within the capacity of man to reproduce."

"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."

"You can have no dominion greater than that over yourself."

"I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men."

"The human body is a machine which winds its own springs; it is the living image of perpetual motion."

"Our life is made by the death of others. In dead matter insensible life remains, which, reunited to the stomachs of living things, resumes life, both sensual and intellectual."

"Intellectual passion drives out sensuality."

"The truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior intellects."

"The deeper the feeling, the greater the pain."

"The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any reason, is like a mirror which copies everything placed in front of it without being conscious of their existence."

"Nothing is stronger than habit."

"The eyes are the windows of the soul."

"Realize that everything connects to everything else."

"I thought I was learning to live; I was only learning to die."

"He who does not value life does not deserve it."

"Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel."

"Threats only frighten the undecided; firm souls make no account of them."

"Every action done in company ought to be done with some sign of living accord."

"The mind of the painter should be like a mirror which always takes the color of the thing that it reflects, and contains as many images as there are things placed before it."

"Painting is the sole means of reproducing all the known works of nature."

"Among the great things which are found among us, the existence of nothing is the greatest."

"I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have."

"The painter strives and competes with nature."

"Science is the captain, practice the soldier."

"Whoever despises painting loves neither philosophy nor nature."

"The painter who has no doubts achieves little."

"The hand that delineates cannot do otherwise than be guided by the mind."

"A painter is not admirable unless he is universal."

"He who loves a thing for its utility rather than for its beauty does not understand it."

"The greatest misfortune is when theory outstrips performance."

"Among all human opinions, that of the painter is most worthy; for he holds converse with nature."

"I have always felt it incumbent upon me to describe each thing in the most exact way possible: to always ask — how does this actually work?"

"The eye is the window of the human body through which it feels its way and enjoys the beauty of the world."

"Perspective is the bridle and rudder of painting."

"Motion is the cause of every life."

"In order to arrive at knowledge of the motions of birds in the air, it is first necessary to acquire knowledge of the winds, which we will prove by the motions of water in itself."

"Shadow is the privation of light and it appears to me that it is the most subtle and the hardest to study of any science."

"Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world."

"The rivers are the veins of the earth, and the tides are its breathing."

"The stone, the soil, the water, and the fire make war with one another; but man is the one who benefits, and enjoys the beautiful spectacle."

"I wish to work miracles."

"Shun those studies in which the work that results dies with the worker."

"Nothing can be desired that is more excellent than the union of eyes and ears, which gives the perfection of all knowledge."

"The object of the painter is to delight, to move, to convince."

"What is beautiful is not always good, but what is good is always beautiful."

"He who thinks little errs much."

"The span of a man's outstretched arms is equal to his height."

"Just as eating contrary to the inclination is injurious to the health, so study without desire spoils the memory."

"I awoke only to find that the rest of the world is still asleep."

"Tell me if anything was ever done. Tell me. Tell me."

"All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions."

"Having wandered some distance among gloomy rocks, I came to the entrance of a great cavern. Suddenly there arose in me two contrary emotions: fear and desire — fear of the threatening dark cave, desire to see whether there were any marvelous things within."

"Truth was the only daughter of Time."

"Learning acquired in youth holds back the decline of old age; and if you understand that old age has wisdom for its nourishment, you will so conduct yourself that your old age may lack for nothing."

"All sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of Experience, the mother of all Knowledge."

"Now do you not see that the eye embraces the beauty of the whole world? It counsels and corrects all the arts of mankind... it is the prince of mathematics, and the sciences founded on it are absolutely certain."

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

"A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light."

"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."

"Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you."

"It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end."

"It is the infinite alone that cannot be attained, for if it could it would become finite."

"Necessity is the mistress and guardian of Nature."

"Good culture is born of a good disposition; and since the cause is more to be praised than the effect, I will rather praise a good disposition without culture, than good culture without the disposition."

"The natural desire of good men is knowledge."

"Thou, O God, dost sell us all good things at the price of labour."

"Love shows itself more in adversity than in prosperity; as light does, which shines most where the place is darkest."

"My works are the issue of pure and simple experience, who is the one true mistress."

"Mechanics is the paradise of the mathematical sciences because by means of it one comes to the fruits of mathematics."

"Truth at last cannot be hidden. Deception is of no avail before so great a judge. Nothing is hidden under the sun."

"Movement will cease before we are weary of being useful."

"The Medici created and destroyed me."

"The earth is not in the centre of the Sun's orbit nor at the centre of the universe, but in the centre of its companion elements, and united with them."

"I know that many will call this useless work."

"Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow."

"Constancy does not begin, but is that which perseveres."

"Oysters open completely when the moon is full; and when the crab sees one it throws a piece of stone or seaweed into it and the oyster cannot close again so that it serves the crab for meat. Such is the fate of him who opens his mouth too much and thereby puts himself at the mercy of the listener."

"Fire destroys falsehood, that is sophistry, and restores truth, driving out darkness."

"A picture ought to be done in such a way as that the spectator may easily recognise, by means of their attitudes, the purpose in their minds."

"Let no man who is not a Mathematician read the elements of my work."

"If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself, or even less in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct."

"As you cannot do what you want, want what you can do."

"One has no right to love or hate anything if one has not acquired a thorough knowledge of its nature. Great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you know it but little you will be able to love it only a little or not at all."

"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand."

"He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year."

"I am not poor. Poor are those who desire many things."

"The soul can never be corrupted with the corruption of the body, but it is like the wind which causes the sound of the organ, and which ceases to cause a sweet sound if a pipe is spoiled."

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"

"There are four powers: memory and intellect, desire and covetousness. The first two are mental and the others sensual."

"The average human looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance, and talks without thinking."

"Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?"

"Experience is a truer guide than the words of others."

"In nature there is no effect without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment."

"The knowledge of all things is possible."

"Any one who in discussion relies upon authority uses not his understanding, but rather his memory."

"He who has no doubt advances little."

"A wave is never found alone, but is mingled with the other waves."

"The air moves like a river and carries the clouds with it; just as running water carries all the things that float upon it."

"The sun has never seen any shadow."

"Everything in nature grows and multiplies according to a fixed rule."

"The body of the earth is of the nature of a fish — a fish that breathes by means of its own juices."

"There shall be wings! If the accomplishment be not for me, 'tis for some other."

"Every painter paints himself."

"Good painting is nothing else but a copy of the perfections of God and a recollection of His painting."

"The painter who draws by practice alone sees nothing but the surface of what he copies."

"The height of a man's success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment."

"Constancy is the virtue by which all other virtues bear fruit."

"Begin with the hardest. The rest will follow of itself."

"Brevity is the greatest form of art: to say much in few words."

"Darkness is absence of light; shadow is the diminution of light."

"Men of lofty genius sometimes accomplish the most when they work least, for their minds are occupied with their ideas and the perfection of their conceptions, to which they afterwards give form."

"Blink your eye and look at it again. That which you see was not there at first, and that which was there is no more."

"As you go about town, constantly observe, note, and consider the circumstances and behavior of men as they talk and quarrel, or laugh, or come to blows."

"The positions of the people are so infinite that the memory is incapable of retaining them, which is why you should keep these sketches as your guides."

"He who can go to the fountain does not go to the water-jar."

"The mole has very small eyes and it always lives underground; it lives as long as it is in the dark, but when it comes into the light it dies immediately, because it becomes known — and so it is with lies."

"The swan is white without any spot, and it sings sweetly as it dies, its life ending with that song."

"You may discover in the patterns on a stained wall a resemblance to various landscapes, adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, and wide valleys. Or again you may see battles and figures in action, or strange faces and costumes. The mind is stimulated to new inventions by obscure things."

"If the painter wishes to see beauties that charm him, it lies within his power to create them; and if he wishes to see monstrosities that are frightful, buffoonish, or ridiculous, or pitiable, he can be lord thereof."

"If you wish to have a sound knowledge of the forms of objects, begin with the details of them, and do not go on to the second step until you have the first well fixed in memory."

"An object will display the greatest difference of light and shade when it is seen in the strongest light. But this should not be much used in painting, because the works would be crude and ungraceful. In everything, extremes are to be avoided: too much light gives crudeness; too little prevents our seeing."

"Oh mighty and once-living instrument of nature, your vast strength was to no avail."

"See how the wings, striking against the air, sustain the heavy eagle in the thin air on high. As much force is exerted by the object against the air as by the air against the object."

"The oyster, when the moon is full, opens itself wide, and when the crab looks in he throws in a stone or seaweed and the oyster cannot close again, whereby it serves for food to that crab. This is what happens to him who opens his mouth to tell his secret. He becomes the prey of the treacherous hearer."

"The force of gravity acts in the direction of an imaginary line between the centers of each object."

"No instant is self-contained, just as no drop in a flowing river is self-contained. Each moment incorporates what came right before and what is coming right after."

"The veins of the earth carry the blood that keeps the mountains alive."

"Practice must always be founded on sound theory."

"Likewise in painting, I can do everything possible."

"O neglectful Nature, why are you so partial — becoming to some of your children a tender and gentle mother, and to others a most cruel and ruthless stepmother?"

"The boundaries of bodies are the least of all things."

"The point, being indivisible, occupies no space. That which occupies no space is nothing. The limiting surface of one thing is the beginning of another."

"The air is filled with endless images of the objects distributed in it; and all are represented in all, and all in one, and all in each."

"Every body in light and shade fills the surrounding air with infinite images of itself, diffused in the air and conveying the nature, colour and form of the body which produces it."

"Shadow is a more powerful agent than light, for it can impede and entirely deprive bodies of their light, while light can never entirely expel shadow from an opaque body."

"The eye can best distinguish the forms of objects when it is placed between the shaded and the illuminated parts."

"Good judgment is born of clear understanding, and a clear understanding comes of reasons derived from sound rules, and sound rules are the issue of sound experience — the common mother of all the sciences and arts."

"Though I may not quote other authors, I shall rely on that which is much greater and more worthy — on experience, the mistress of their Masters."

"Those men who are inventors and interpreters between Nature and Man are as the object in front of a mirror compared with its reflection. The first is something in itself; the other nothingness."

"If you transmit the rays of the sun through a hole in the shape of a star, you will see a beautiful effect of perspective in the spot where the sunlight falls."

"The atmosphere is blue by reason of the darkness above it, because black and white together make blue."

"Seeing that I can find no subject specially useful or pleasing — since the men who have come before me have taken every useful or necessary theme — I must do like one who, being poor, comes last to the fair."

"A shadow may be infinitely dark, and also of infinite degrees of absence of darkness. The beginnings and ends of shadow lie between the light and darkness and may be infinitely diminished and increased."

"Shadow partakes of the nature of universal matter. All such things are more powerful in their beginning and grow weaker toward the end."

"Among all the studies of natural causes and reasons, light chiefly delights the beholder; and among the great features of mathematics, the certainty of its demonstrations is what most elevates the mind of the investigator."

"The senses are of the earth; Reason stands apart in contemplation."

"The part always has a tendency to reunite with its whole in order to escape from its imperfection."

"O Man, who will discern in this work of mine the wonderful works of Nature — reflect how much more criminal it is to take the life of a man than to destroy it. For the soul that dwells in that structure is a thing divine. Leave it then to dwell in His work at His good will and pleasure, and let not your rage or malice destroy a life — for indeed, he who does not value it, does not himself deserve it."

"Our body is dependent on heaven and heaven on the Spirit."

"The man who blames the supreme certainty of mathematics feeds on confusion, and can never silence the contradictions of sophistical sciences which lead to an eternal quackery."

"There is no certainty in sciences where one of the mathematical sciences cannot be applied, or which are not in relation with mathematics."

"Science is the observation of things possible, whether present or past; prescience is the knowledge of things which may come to pass, though but slowly."

"Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience."

"Experience, the interpreter between formative nature and the human race, teaches how nature acts among mortals; and being constrained by necessity cannot act otherwise than as reason, which is its helm, requires her to act."

"The soul is content to stay imprisoned in the human body, for through it she has her senses; but without them she would be imperfect."

"King of the animals — as thou hast described him — I should rather say king of the beasts, thou being the greatest, because thou hast spared slaying them only in order to fill your gullet."

"I myself have proved it to be of no small use, when in bed in the dark, to recall in fancy the external details of forms previously studied; and this is certainly an admirable exercise, and useful for impressing things on the memory."

"The motions of men must be such as suggest their dignity or their baseness."

"If you condemn painting, which is the only imitator of all visible works of nature, you will certainly despise a subtle invention which brings philosophy and subtle speculation to the consideration of the nature of all forms — seas and plains, trees, animals, plants and flowers. Hence we may justly call painting the grandchild of nature and related to God."

"Love, Fear, and Esteem — write these on three stones."

"Fame alone raises herself to Heaven, because virtuous things are in favour with God."

"Of the horse I will say nothing because I know the times."

"Many are they who have a taste and love for drawing, but no talent; and this will be discernible in boys who are not diligent and never finish their drawings with shading."

"The soul seems to reside in the judgment, and the judgment would seem to be seated in that part where all the senses meet; and this is called the Common Sense."

"Though human ingenuity may make various inventions answering the same end, it will never devise any invention more beautiful, more simple, or more to the purpose than Nature does; because in her inventions nothing is wanting, and nothing is superfluous."

"Fire destroys all sophistry, that is deceit, and maintains truth alone, that is gold."

"Sculptured figures which appear to be in motion will, in their standing position, actually look as if they were falling forward."

"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."

"It is ordained that to the ambitious, who derive no satisfaction from the gifts of life and the beauty of the world, life shall be a cause of suffering, and they shall possess neither the profit nor the beauty of the world."

"The fame of the rich man dies with him; only the fame of the treasure, and not of the man who possessed it, remains. Far greater is the glory of the virtue of mortals than that of their riches."

"How many emperors and how many princes have lived and died and no record of them remains, and they only sought to gain dominions and riches in order that their fame might be everlasting."

"Knowledge shall always bear witness like a clarion to its creator, since knowledge is the daughter of its creator, and not the stepdaughter, like wealth."

"Bountiful nature has provided that in all parts of the world you will find something to imitate."

"Consider in the streets at nightfall the faces of men and women when it is bad weather: what grace and sweetness they manifest."

"So vile a thing is a lie that even if it spoke fairly of God it would take away somewhat from His divinity; and so excellent a thing is truth that if it praises the humblest things they are exalted."

"Truth is to falsehood as light is to darkness. Truth is the supreme nourishment of higher intellects."

"In the days of thy youth seek to obtain that which shall compensate the losses of thy old age. If thou understandest that old age is fed with wisdom, so conduct thyself in youth that sustenance may not be lacking to thy old age."

"The sense ministers to the soul, and not the soul to the senses; and where the sense that ministers ceases to serve the soul, all the functions of that sense are lacking in life."

"Knowledge of the past and of the places of the earth is the ornament and food of the mind of man."

"I have found that in the composition of the human body, as compared with the bodies of animals, the organs of sense are duller and coarser. Thus it is composed of less ingenious instruments, and of spaces less capacious for receiving the faculties of sense."

"Obstacles in the way of truth are finally punished."

"It is better to imitate ancient than modern work."

"The soul of the mother first constructs in the womb the form of the man, and in due time awakens the soul that is to inhabit it."

"Helen of Troy, gazing in a mirror in her old age, wondered how she had twice been ravished. Mortal beauty vanishes unless it is rescued by art from destroying age and death."

"Look at light and admire its beauty. Close your eyes, and then look again: what you saw is no longer there, and what you will see later is not yet."

"The worst evil which can befall the artist is that his work should appear good in his own eyes."

"I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand. Why shells existed on the tops of mountains. Why thunder lasts longer than that which causes it. How various circles of water form around the spot struck by a stone. These questions and other strange phenomena engaged my thought throughout my life."

"Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom."

"The color of the object illuminated partakes of the color of that which illuminates it."

"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 in shadow lost in the darkness, and that part lit drawing its brilliancy from the splendour of the sky."

"There are three aspects to perspective: how the size of objects seems to diminish according to distance; how colors change the farther away they are; and how objects ought to be finished less carefully the farther away they are."

"Painting is a mental thing."

"It's not enough that you believe what you see. You must also understand what you see."