Leonardo da Vinci quotes are relevant today as they were during his lifetime. There is no doubt that Leonardo da Vinci was one of the most brilliant minds of all time.
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in the small village of Vinci, Italy. He was the illegitimate son of a notary, Ser Piero da Vinci, and a peasant girl, Caterina.
Leonardo was probably named after the artist Leonardo da Vinci, who was famous at the time. As a young boy, he showed a great interest in art and science. He was a talented artist and sculptor, and loved to study nature.
He also became interested in mathematics, engineering, and astronomy. Leonardo was educated at home by his father and other teachers. He learned to read and write, and also studied Latin and Greek. In 1468, Leonardo was apprenticed to the artist Andrea del Verrocchio, one of the most famous artists in Florence.
There he learned the techniques of painting, sculpture, and metalworking. Leonardo also studied the works of other artists, including Michelangelo and Raphael. In 1472, Leonardo moved to Milan, where he worked for the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza.
He also painted the Mona Lisa and other famous paintings. Leonardo was a genius, and his work in art, science, and engineering has been admired for centuries.
Here are some of Leonardo da Vinci Quotes on art, invention, and life.
70 Leonardo da Vinci Quotes
- “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.”
2. “Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.”
3. “The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.”
4. “I love those who can smile in trouble…”
5. “Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose”
6. “The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.”
7. “I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”
8. “Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”
9. “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
10. “Learning never exhausts the mind.”
11. “Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.”
12. “There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.”
13. “One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.”
14. “A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.”
15. “Time stays long enough for those who use it.”
16. “I have offended God and mankind because my work didn’t reach the quality it should have.”
17. “I awoke, only to see that the rest of the world is still asleep.”
20. “The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.”
21. “The deeper the feeling, the greater the pain”
23. “As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.”
24. “life without love, is no life at all”
25. “Our life is made by the death of others.”
26. “How may paintings have preserved the image of a divine beauty which in its natural manifestation has been rapidly overtaken by time or death. Thus, the work of the painter is nobler than that of nature, its mistress.”
27. “Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.”
28. “Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood.”
29. “God sells us all things at the price of labor.”
30. “Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.”
31. “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”
32. “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.”
33. “Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
34. “He who wishes to be rich within a day, will be hanged within a year.”
35. “Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!”
36. “I thought I was learning to live; I was only learning to die.”
37. “Obstacles cannot crush me; every obstacle yields to stern resolve.”
38. “He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.”
39. “The eye sees a thing more clearly in dreams, than the imagination awake.”
40. “It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.”
41. “The knowledge of all things is possible”
42. “Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.”
43. “The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.”
45. “When you put your hand in a flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come”
46. “The mind that engages in subjects of too great variety becomes confused and weakened.”
47. “All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions”
48. “Wisdom is the daughter of experience”
49. “People of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and made things happen.”
50. “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. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.”
51. “He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss.”
More Leonardo da Vinci Quotes on Art and Life
52. “The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard.”
53. “Man has much power of discourse which for the most part is vain and false; animals have but little, but it is useful and true, and a small truth is better than a great lie.”
54. “To become an artist you have to be curious.”
55. “A poet knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
56. “Why does the eye see more clearly when asleep than the imagination when awake?”
57. “Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel.”
58. “Those who, in debate, appeal to their qualifications, argue from memory, not from understanding.”
59. “Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.”
60. “He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done.”
61. “The worst evil which can befall the artist is that his work should appear good in his own eyes.”
62. “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.”
63. “The acquisition of knowledge is always of use to the intellect, because it may thus drive out useless things and retain the good. For nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known.”
64. “Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places.”
65. “It is an acknowledged fact that we perceive errors in the work of others more readily than in our own.”
66. “The organ of perception acts more readily than judgment.”
67. “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.”
68. “Love is something so ugly that the human race would die out if lovers could see what they were doing”
69. “Lies don’t solve problems it just make it worst …so liars beware”
70. “Although a man be not a painter, he may have just opinions of the forms of men.”