Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Polymath, artist, inventor, scientist

Early Modern influential 87 sayings

Sayings by Leonardo da Vinci

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
General Unverifiable

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
General Unverifiable

Truth was the only daughter of time.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
General Unverifiable

The works of nature are such that they do not exist without cause.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
Work & Money Unverifiable

To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; Study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
General Unverifiable

Experience is a truer guide than the words of others.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
General Unverifiable

Weight, force, and percussion, with their respective causes, are all that is known of the movements of bodies.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
General Unverifiable

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

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
General Unverifiable

Blind ignorance misleads us and makes us content with this empty life.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
General Unverifiable

It is an easy thing to praise and blame, but not so easy to know what to praise and what to blame.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
General Unverifiable

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

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
General Unverifiable

The greatest pleasure and the greatest knowledge is to understand why everything is as it is.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
Food & Drink Unverifiable

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
Food & Drink Unverifiable

The painter has the universe in his mind and hands.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
General Unverifiable

Reprove a friend in secret, but praise him openly.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
General Unverifiable

The mind of the painter is a copy of the divine mind, since it operates freely in creating countless forms of animals, plants, fruits, landscapes, countrysides, ruins, and other things.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
Food & Drink Unverifiable

The eye, which is called the window of the soul, is the principal means by which the understanding can most completely and abundantly appreciate the infinite works of nature.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
Work & Money Unverifiable

Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
General Unverifiable

Just as a well-filled day brings blessed sleep, so a well-employed life brings a blessed death.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
Food & Drink Unverifiable

The knowledge of all things is possible.

c. 1490-1519 — Notebooks
General Unverifiable
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