QUOTES OF LEONARDO DA VINCI

Quotes[edit]
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (Richter, 1888)[edit]
These quotes are primarily from the English translation by Jean Paul Richter of 1888 (not all of them can be confirmed)

I Prolegomena and General Introduction to the Book on Painting[edit]

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

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

 Life well spent is long.

 Tristo é lo discepolo che non avanza il suo maestro.

 Poor is the pupil that does not surpass his master.

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

 He who does not punish evil commands that it be done.

 Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but rathermemory.

 Variant translations:
 Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his
intelligence; he is just using his memory.
 As quoted in The Book of Unusual Quotations (1957) by Rudolf Flesch, p. 12
 Any one who in discussion relies upon authority uses, not his understanding, but
rather his memory.

 Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes
frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.

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

 Necessity is the mistress and guardian of Nature.

 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.
 Richter II p. 126 no. 837 books.google

 Mechanics is the paradise of the mathematical sciences because by means of it one

comes to the fruits of mathematics.

 I am not to blame for putting forward, in the course of my work on science, any

general rule derived from a previous conclusion.

 The Book of the science of Mechanics must precede the Book of useful inventions.

 Seeing that I can find no subject specially useful or pleasing — since the men who have
come before me have taken for their own every useful or necessary theme — I must do
like one who, being poor, comes last to the fair, and can find no other way of providing
himself than by taking all the things already seen by other buyers, and not taken but
refused by reason of their lesser value. I, then, will load my humble pack with this
despised and rejected merchandise, the refuse of so many buyers; and will go about to
distribute it, not indeed in great cities, but in the poorer towns, taking such a price as the
wares I offer may be worth.

 I know that many will call this useless work.

 Though I may not, like them, be able to quote other authors, I shall rely on that
which is much greater and more worthy — on experience, the mistress of their
Masters. They go about puffed up and pompous, dressed and decorated with [the
fruits], not of their own labours, but of those of others. And they will not allow me my
own. They will scorn me as an inventor; but how much more might they — who are not
inventors but vaunters and declaimers of the works of others — be blamed.

 Those men who are inventors and interpreters between Nature and Man, as
compared with boasters and declaimers of the works of others, must be regarded
and not otherwise esteemed than as the object in front of a mirror, when
compared with its image seen in the mirror. For the first is something in itself, and
the other nothingness. — Folks little indebted to Nature, since it is only by chance that
they wear the human form and without it I might class them with the herds of beasts.

 Many will think they may reasonably blame me by alleging that my proofs are
opposed to the authority of certain men held in the highest reverence by their
inexperienced judgments; not considering that my works are the issue of pure
and simple experience, who is the one true mistress. These rules are sufficient to
 enable you to know the true from the false — and this aids men to look only for
things that are possible and with due moderation — and not to wrap yourself in
ignorance, a thing which can have no good result, so that in despair you would
give yourself up to melancholy.

 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
preeminently (tends to) elevate the mind of the investigator. Perspective, therefore, must
be preferred to all the discourses and systems of human learning. In this branch [of
science] the beam of light is explained on those methods of demonstration which form
the glory not so much of Mathematics as of Physics and are graced with the flowers of
both.

 If the Lord — who is the light of all things — vouchsafe to enlighten me, I will treat of
Light; wherefore I will divide the present work into 3 Parts... Linear Perspective, The
Perspective of Colour, The Perspective of Disappearance.

 These rules are of use only in correcting the figures; since every man makes some
mistakes in his first compositions and he who knows them not, cannot amend them. But
you, knowing your errors, will correct your works and where you find mistakes amend
them, and remember never to fall into them again. But if you try to apply these rules in
composition you will never make an end, and will produce confusion in your works.

 These rules will enable you to have a free and sound judgment; since 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. Hence, bearing in mind the precepts of my rules, you will be
able, merely by your amended judgment, to criticise and recognise every thing that is
out of proportion in a work, whether in the perspective or in the figures or any thing else.

 Those who are in love with practice without knowledge are like the sailor who gets into a
ship without rudder or compass and who never can be certain whether he is going.
Practice must always be founded on sound theory, and to this Perspective is the guide
and the gateway; and without this nothing can be done well in the matter of drawing.

 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.
 Here forms, here colours, here the character of every part of the universe are
concentrated to a point; and that point is so marvellous a thing … Oh! marvellous,
O stupendous Necessity — by thy laws thou dost compel every effect to be the
direct result of its cause, by the shortest path. These are miracles...
 Of the eye

 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.

 The eye — which sees all objects reversed — retains the images for some
time. This conclusion is proved by the results; because, the eye having gazed at light
retains some impression of it. After looking (at it) there remain in the eye images of
intense brightness, that make any less brilliant spot seem dark until the eye has lost the
last trace of the impression of the stronger light.
II Linear Perspective[edit]

The boundaries of bodies are the least of all things.

Drawing is based upon perspective, which is nothing else than a thorough knowledge of the
function of the eye.

The Pyramid is the name I apply to the lines which, starting from the surface and edges of each
object, converge from a distance and meet in a single point.
 The instant the atmosphere is illuminated it will be filled with an infinite number of images which
are produced by the various bodies and colours assembled in it. And the eye is the target, a
lodestone, of these images.

 A point is not part of a line.

 The smallest natural point is larger than all mathematical points, and this is
proved because the natural point has continuity, and any thing that is continuous
is infinitely divisible; but the mathematical point is indivisible because it has no
size.

 Nothing is that which fills no space. If one single point placed in a circle may be the
starting point of an infinite number of lines, and the termination of an infinite number of
lines, there must be an infinite number of points separable from this point, and these
when reunited become one again; whence it follows that the part may be equal to the
whole.

 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.

 That which has no limitations, has no form. The limitations of two conterminous

bodies are interchangeably the surface of each. All the surfaces of a body are not parts
of that body.

 The line has in itself neither matter nor substance and may rather be called an
imaginary idea than a real object; and this being its nature it occupies no space.
Therefore an infinite number of lines may be conceived of as intersecting each
other at a point, which has no dimensions and is only of the thickness (if
thickness it may be called) of one single line.

 The boundaries of bodies are the least of all things. The proposition is proved to be
true, because the boundary of a thing is a surface, which is not part of the body
contained within that surface; nor is it part of the air surrounding that body, but is the
medium interposted between the air and the body, as is proved in its place.
 Drawing is based upon perspective, which is nothing else than a thorough
knowledge of the function of the eye. And this function simply consists in receiving in
a pyramid the forms and colours of all the objects placed before it. I say in a pyramid,
because there is no object so small that it will not be larger than the spot where these
pyramids are received into the eye. Therefore, if you extend the lines from the edges of
each body as they converge you will bring them to a single point, and necessarily the
said lines must form a pyramid.

 Perspective is nothing more than a rational demonstration applied to the consideration

of how objects in front of the eye transmit their image to it, by means of a pyramid of
lines. The Pyramid is the name I apply to the lines which, starting from the surface and
edges of each object, converge from a distance and meet in a single point.

 All objects transmit their image to the eye in pyramids, and the nearer to the eye
these pyramids are intersected the smaller will the image appear of the objects
which cause them.

 The instant the atmosphere is illuminated it will be filled with an infinite number of
images which are produced by the various bodies and colours assembled in it.
And the eye is the target, a lodestone, of these images.

 That the atmosphere attracts to itself, like a lodestone, all the images of the objects that
exist in it, and not their forms merely but their nature may be clearly seen by the sun,
which is a hot and luminous body. All the atmosphere, which is the all-pervading matter,
absorbs light and heat, and reflects in itself the image of the source of that heat and
splendor and, in each minutest portion, does the same. The north pole does the same
as the lode stone shows; and the moon and the other planets, without suffering any
diminution, do the same.

 All bodies together, and each by itself, give off to the surrounding air an infinite
number of images which are all-pervading and each complete, each conveying
the nature, colour and form of the body which produces it.

 Every body in light and shade fills the surrounding air with infinite images of itself; and
these, by infinite pyramids diffused in the air, represent this body throughout space and
on every side.

 The body of the atmosphere is full of infinite radiating pyramids produced by the
objects existing in it. These intersect and cross each other with independent
 convergence without interfering with each other and pass through all the surrounding
atmosphere; and are of equal force and value — all being equal to each, each to all.
And by means of these, images of the body are transmitted everywhere and on all
sides, and each receives in itself every minutest portion of the object that produces it.

 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, whence it happens that if two
mirrors are placed in such a manner as to face each other exactly, the first will be
reflected in the second and the second in the first. The first being reflected in the second
takes to it the image of itself with all the images represented in it, among which is the
image of the second mirror, and so, image within image, they go on to infinity in such a
manner as that each mirror has within it a mirror, each smaller than the last and one
inside the other. Thus, by this example, it is clearly proved that every object sends its
image to every spot whence the object itself can be seen; and the converse: That the
same object may receive in itself all the images of the objects that are in front of it.

 All objects project their whole image and likeness, diffused and mingled in the
whole of the atmosphere, opposite to themselves. The image of every point of the
bodily surface, exists in every part of the atmosphere. All the images of the objects are
in every part of the atmosphere

 It is impossible that the eye should project from itself, by visual rays, the visual virtue,
since, as soon as it opens, that front portion [of the eye] which would give rise to this
emanation would have to go forth to the object and this it could not do without time. And
this being so, it could not travel so high as the sun in a month's time when the eye
wanted to see it.

 All the rays which convey the images of objects through the air are straight lines. Hence,
if the images of very large bodies have to pass through very small holes, and beyond
these holes recover their large size, the lines must necessarily intersect.

 O neglectful Nature, wherefore art thou thus partial, becoming to some of thy children a
tender and benignant mother, to others a most cruel and ruthless stepmother? I see thy
children given into slavery to others without ever receiving any benefit, and in lieu of any
reward for the services they have done for them they are repaid by the severest
punishments.

 The Medici created and destroyed me.

III Six books on Light and Shade[edit]
 Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be
understood in detail but for shadow.

No small hole can so modify the convergence of rays of light as to prevent, at a long distance, the
transmission of the true form of the luminous body causing them.

 Shadow is not the absence of light, merely the obstruction of the luminous rays
by an opaque body. Shadow is of the nature of darkness. Light is of the nature of a
luminous body; one conceals and the other reveals. They are always associated and
 inseparable from all objects. But 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 a body, that is from an opaque body.

 Shadow is the diminution alike of light and of darkness, and stands between
darkness and light.

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

 Shadow partakes of the nature of universal matter. All such matters are more
powerful in their beginning and grow weaker towards the end, I say at the beginning,
whatever their form or condition may be and whether visible or invisible. And it is not
from small beginnings that they grow to a great size in time; as it might be a great oak
which has a feeble beginning from a small acorn. Yet I may say that the oak is most
powerful at its beginning, that is where it springs from the earth, which is where it is
largest

 Darkness is absence of light. Shadow is diminution of light.

 Light is the chaser away of darkness. Shade is the obstruction of light.Primary

light is that which falls on objects and causes light and shade. And derived lights are
those portions of a body which are illuminated by the primary light. A primary shadow is
that side of a body on which the light cannot fall.

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

 The outlines and form of any part of a body in light and shade are indistinct in the
shadows and in the high lights; but in the portions between the light and the shadows
they are highly conspicuous.

 A single and distinct luminous body causes stronger relief in the object than a diffused
light; as may be seen by comparing one side of a landscape illuminated by the sun, and
one overshadowed by clouds, and so illuminated only by the diffused light of the
atmosphere.
 The body which is nearest to the light casts the largest shadow, and why? If an
object placed in front of a single light is very close to it you will see that it casts a very
large shadow on the opposite wall, and the farther you remove the object from the light
the smaller will the image of the shadow become.

 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 sun's rays fall.

 No small hole can so modify the convergence of rays of light as to prevent, at a

long distance, the transmission of the true form of the luminous body causing
them.
IV Perspective of Disappearance[edit]

 I ask how far away the eye can discern a non-luminous body, as, for instance, a
mountain. It will be very plainly visible if the sun is behind it; and could be seen at a
greater or less distance according to the sun's place in the sky.

 When you represent in your work shadows which you can only discern with difficulty,
and of which you cannot distinguish the edges so that you apprehend them confusedly,
you must not make them sharp or definite lest your work should have a wooden effect.

 A shadow will appear dark in proportion to the brilliancy of the light surrounding it and
conversely it will be less conspicuous where it is seen against a darker background.

 A dark object seen against a bright background will appear smaller than it is. A light
object will look larger when it is seen against a background darker than itself.

 A luminous body when obscured by a dense atmosphere will appear smaller; as may be
seen by the moon or sun veiled by fogs.

 Of several luminous bodies of equal size and brilliancy and at an equal distance, that
will look the largest which is surrounded by the darkest background.

 I find that any luminous body when seen through a dense and thick mist diminishes in
proportion to its distance from the eye. Thus it is with the sun by day, as well as the
moon and the other eternal lights by night. And when the air is clear, these luminaries
appear larger in proportion as they are farther from the eye.

 A luminous body will appear more brilliant in proportion as it is surrounded by deeper

shadow.
VI Perspective of Colour and Aerial Perspective[edit]

 The variety of colour in objects cannot be discerned at a great distance, excepting in

those parts which are directly lighted up by the solar rays.
VII On the Proportions and on the Movements of the Human Figure[edit]

 Experience shows us that the air must have darkness beyond it and yet it appears blue.
If you produce a small quantity of smoke from dry wood and the rays of the sun fall on
this smoke, and if you then place behind the smoke a piece of black velvet on which the
sun does not shine, you will see that all the smoke which is between the eye and the
black stuff will appear of a beautiful blue colour. And if instead of the velvet you place a
white cloth smoke, that is too thick smoke, hinders, and too thin smoke does not
produce, the perfection of this blue colour. Hence a moderate amount of smoke
produces the finest blue.

 The atmosphere is blue by reason of the darkness above it because black and white
make blue.
VIII Botany for Painters and Elements of Landscape Painting[edit]

 The sun gives spirit and life to plants and the earth nourishes them with moisture.
IX The Practice of Painting[edit]

A picture or representation of human figures, 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.
 What is fair in men, passes away, but not so in art.

 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.

 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, or other noteworthy things conceived by
subtle speculation; and this is certainly an admirable exercise, and useful for impressing
things on the memory.

 If you are representing a white body let it be surrounded by ample space, because as
white has no colour of its own, it is tinged and altered in some degree by the colour of
the objects surrounding it

 A picture or representation of human figures, 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. Thus, if you have to represent a man of noble character in the act of
speaking, let his gestures be such as naturally accompany good words; and, in the
same way, if you wish to depict a man of a brutal nature, give him fierce movements; as
with his arms flung out towards the listener, and his head and breast thrust forward
beyond his feet, as if following the speaker's hands. Thus it is with a deaf and dumb
person who, when he sees two men in conversation — although he is deprived of
hearing — can nevertheless understand, from the attitudes and gestures of the
speakers, the nature of their discussion.
 When you wish to represent a man speaking to a number of people, consider the
matter of which he has to treat and adapt his action to the subject. Thus, if he
speaks persuasively, let his action be appropriate to it. If the matter in hand be to set
forth an argument, let the speaker, with the fingers of the right hand hold one finger of
the left hand, having the two smaller ones closed; and his face alert, and turned towards
the people with mouth a little open, to look as though he spoke; and if he is sitting let
him appear as though about to rise, with his head forward. If you represent him standing
make him leaning slightly forward with body and head towards the people. These you
must represent as silent and attentive, all looking at the orator's face with gestures of
admiration; and make some old men in astonishment at the things they hear, with the
corners of their mouths pulled down and drawn in, their cheeks full of furrows, and their
eyebrows raised, and wrinkling the forehead where they meet.

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

 Represent your figures in such action as may be fitted to express what purpose is
in the mind of each; otherwise your art will not be admirable.

 What is fair in men, passes away, but not so in art.

 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 — which are surrounded by shade and light. And this is true knowledge and
the legitimate issue of nature; for painting is born of nature — or, to speak more
correctly, we will say it is the grandchild of nature; for all visible things are produced by
nature, and these her children have given birth to painting. Hence we may justly call it
the grandchild of nature and related to God.

 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; and the ear is the second, which acquires dignity by hearing of
the things the eye has seen. If you, historians, or poets, or mathematicians had not
seen things with your eyes you could not report of them in writing. And if you, O poet,
tell a story with your pen, the painter with his brush can tell it more easily, with simpler
completeness and less tedious to be understood. And if you call painting dumb poetry,
the painter may call poetry blind painting. Now which is the worse defect? to be blind or
dumb? Though the poet is as free as the painter in the invention of his fictions they are
not so satisfactory to men as paintings; for, though poetry is able to describe forms,
 actions and places in words, the painter deals with the actual similitude of the forms, in
order to represent them. Now tell me which is the nearer to the actual man: the name of
man or the image of the man. The name of man differs in different countries, but his
form is never changed but by death.

 The painter strives and competes with nature.

X Studies and Sketches for Pictures and Decorations[edit]

Truth at last cannot be hidden. Dissimulation is of no avail. Dissimulation is to no purpose before

so great a judge. … Nothing is hidden under the sun.
 Movement will cease before we are weary of being useful.

 We, by our arts may be called the grandsons of God.

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

 Ivy is of longevity.
 Variant: Ivy is [a type] of longevity.

 Fire destroys falsehood, that is sophistry, and restores truth, driving outdarkness.

 Fire may be represented as the destroyer of all sophistry, and as the image and
demonstration of truth; because it is light and drives out darkness which conceals all
essences [or subtle things].

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

 Truth at last cannot be hidden. Dissimulation is of no avail. Dissimulation is to

no purpose before so great a judge. Falsehood puts on a mask.Nothing is hidden
under the sun.

 Fire is to represent truth because it destroys all sophistry and lies; and the mask is for
lying and falsehood which conceal truth.

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

 Movement will fail sooner than usefulness.

 When the sun appears which dispels darkness in general, you put out the light which
dispelled it for you in particular for your need and convenience.

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

 Love, Fear, and Esteem, — Write these on three stones.

 "Of servants"

 Fame alone raises herself to Heaven, because virtuous things are in favour withGod.
 Disgrace should be represented upside down, because all her deeds are contrary to
God and tend to hell.

 Nothing is so much to be feared as Evil Report.

 I am still hopeful. A falcon, Time. But the coincidence is probably accidental.

 Truth here makes Falsehood torment lying tongues.

 Such as harm is when it hurts me not, is good which avails me not.

 He who offends others, does not secure himself.

 One's thoughts turn towards Hope.

 By the side of this passage is a sketch of a cage with a bird sitting in it.
XI The Notes on Sculpture[edit]

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

 If you wish to make a figure in marble, first make one of clay, and when you have
finished it, let it dry and place it in a case which should be large enough, after the figure
is taken out of it, to receive also the marble, from which you intend to reveal the figure in
imitation of the one in clay.

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

 To manage the large mould make a model of the small mould, make a small room in
proportion.

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

  This relates to a huge equestrian statue that Leonardo had been commissioned to
design and create, but which was not cast until over 500 years later, in 1999, when
two huge statues based upon his design were finally made. (c.1497)
XIV Anatomy, Zoology and Physiology[edit]

 The Common Sense, is that which judges of things offered to it by the other senses. The
ancient speculators have concluded that that part of man which constitutes his judgment
is caused by a central organ to which the other five senses refer everything by means of
impressibility; and to this centre they have given the name Common Sense. And they
say that this Sense is situated in the centre of the head between Sensation and
Memory. And this name of Common Sense is given to it solely because it is the
common judge of all the other five senses i.e. Seeing, Hearing, Touch, Taste and Smell.
This Common Sense is acted upon by means of Sensation which is placed as a medium
between it and the senses. Sensation is acted upon by means of the images of things
presented to it by the external instruments, that is to say the senses which are the
medium between external things and Sensation. In the same way the senses are acted
upon by objects. Surrounding things transmit their images to the senses and the senses
transfer them to the Sensation. Sensation sends them to the Common Sense, and by it
they are stamped upon the memory and are there more or less retained according to
the importance or force of the impression.

 Though human ingenuity may make various inventions which, by the help of
various machines answering the same end, it will never devise any inventions
more beautiful, nor more simple, nor more to the purpose than Nature does;
because in her inventions nothing is wanting, and nothing is superfluous, and
she needs no counterpoise when she makes limbs proper for motion in the
bodies of animals. But she puts into them the soul of the body, which forms them
that is the soul of the mother which first constructs in the womb the form of the
man and in due time awakens the soul that is to inhabit it.

 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 and is not all-
pervading throughout the body, as many have thought. Rather is it entirely in one part.
Because, if it were all-pervading and the same in every part, there would have been no
need to make the instruments of the senses meet in one centre and in one single spot;
on the contrary it would have sufficed that the eye should fulfil the function of its
sensation on its surface only, and not transmit the image of the things seen, to the
 sense, by means of the optic nerves, so that the soul — for the reason given above —
may perceive it in the surface of the eye.

 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, in order that
they may give thee their children for the benefit of the gullet, of which thou hast
attempted to make a sepulchre for all animals; and I would say still more, if it were
allowed me to speak the entire truth . But we do not go outside human matters in telling
of one supreme wickedness, which does not happen among the animals of the earth,
inasmuch as among them are found none who eat their own kind, unless through want
of sense.

 Our life is made by the death of others.

XV Astronomy[edit]

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.

 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.And any one
standing on the moon, when it and the sun are both beneath us, would see this our
earth and the element of water upon it just as we see the moon, and the earth would
light it as it lights us.
XVI Physical Geography[edit]

 And if you should say that the shells were carried by the waves, being empty and dead,
I say that where the dead went they were not far removed from the living; for in these
mountains living ones are found, which are recognisable by the shells being in pairs;
and they are in a layer where there are no dead ones; and a little higher up they are
 found, where they were thrown by the waves, all the dead ones with their shells
separated, near to where the rivers fell into the sea, to a great depth; like the Arno which
fell from the Gonfolina near to Monte Lupo, where it left a deposit of gravel which may
still be seen, and which has agglomerated; and of stones of various districts, natures,
and colours and hardness, making one single conglomerate. And a little beyond the
sandstone conglomerate a tufa has been formed, where it turned towards Castel
Florentino; farther on, the mud was deposited in which the shells lived, and which rose
in layers according to the levels at which the turbid Arno flowed into that sea. And from
time to time the bottom of the sea was raised, depositing these shells in layers, as may
be seen in the cutting at Colle Gonzoli, laid open by the Arno which is wearing away the
base of it; in which cutting the said layers of shells are very plainly to be seen in clay of
a bluish colour, and various marine objects are found there. And if the earth of our
hemisphere is indeed raised by so much higher than it used to be, it must have become
by so much lighter by the waters which it lost through the rift between Gibraltar and
Ceuta; and all the more the higher it rose, because the weight of the waters which were
thus lost would be added to the earth in the other hemisphere. And if the shells had
been carried by the muddy deluge they would have been mixed up, and separated from
each other amidst the mud, and not in regular steps and layers — as we see them now
in our time.
XVII Topographical Notes[edit]

 Men born in hot countries love the night because it refreshes them and have a horror of
light because it burns them; and therefore they are of the colour of night, that is black.
And in cold countries it is just the contrary.
XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.[edit]
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.

The acquisition of any 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.

You do ill if you praise, and still worse if you reprove in a matter you do not understand.
 It is easier to contend with evil at the first than at the last.

 I obey Thee Lord, first for the love I ought, in all reason to bear Thee; secondly for that
Thou canst shorten or prolong the lives of men.

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

 O admirable impartiality of Thine, Thou first Mover; Thou hast not permitted that any
force should fail of the order or quality of its necessary results.

 Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature.

 Necessity is the theme and the inventress, the eternal curb and law of nature.

 In many cases one and the same thing is attracted by two strong forces, namely
Necessity and Potency. Water falls in rain; the earth absorbs it from the necessity for
moisture; and the sun evaporates it, not from necessity, but by its power.

 Weight, force and casual impulse, together with resistance, are the four external powers
in which all the visible actions of mortals have their being and their end.

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

 The motive power is the cause of all life.

 O Man, who will discern in this work of mine the wonderful works of Nature, if you think it
would be a criminal thing to destroy it, reflect how much more criminal it is to take the
life of a man; and if this, his external form, appears to thee marvellously constructed,
remember that it is nothing as compared with the soul that dwells in that structure; for
that indeed, be it what it may, 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.
 The part always has a tendency to reunite with its whole in order to escape from
its imperfection.

 Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than with the imagination
being awake?

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

 Every action needs to be prompted by a motive. To know and to will are two
operations of the human mind. Discerning, judging, deliberating are acts of the
human mind.

 All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions.

 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.

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

 Wisdom is the daughter of experience.

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

 Truth was the only daughter of Time.

 Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves
effects such as are not caused by your experiments.

 Experience does not err; only your judgments err by expecting from her what is
not in her power. Men wrongly complain of Experience; with great abuse they accuse
her of leading them astray but they set Experience aside, turning from it with complaints
as to our ignorance causing us to be carried away by vain and foolish desires to
promise ourselves, in her name, things that are not in her power; saying that she is
fallacious. Men are unjust in complaining of innocent Experience, constantly accusing
her of error and of false evidence.

 Every instrument requires to be made by experience.

 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 these mathematics.

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

 Science is the captain, and practice the soldiers.

 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.

 Now you see that the hope and the desire of returning home and to one's former state is
like the moth to the light, and that the man who with constant longing awaits with joy
each new spring time, each new summer, each new month and new year — deeming
that the things he longs for are ever too late in coming — does not perceive that he is
longing for his own destruction. But this desire is the very quintessence, the spirit of the
elements, which finding itself imprisoned with the soul is ever longing to return from the
human body to its giver. And you must know that this same longing is that quintessence,
inseparable from nature, and that man is the image of the world.

 O Time! consumer of all things; O envious age! thou dost destroy all things and
devour all things with the relentless teeth of years, little by little in a slow
death. Helen, when she looked in her mirror, seeing the withered wrinkles made in her
face by old age, wept and wondered why she had twice been carried away.

 O sleepers! what a thing is slumber! Sleep resembles death. Ah, why then dost thou not
work in such wise as that after death thou mayst retain a resemblance to perfect life,
when, during life, thou art in sleep so like to the hapless dead?

 The knowledge of past times and of the places on the earth is both an ornament
and nutriment to the human mind.
 To lie is so vile, that even if it were in speaking well of godly things it would take
off something from God's grace; and Truth is so excellent, that if it praises but
small things they become noble.

 Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness; and this
truth is in itself so excellent that, even when it dwells on humble and lowly matters, it is
still infinitely above uncertainty and lies, disguised in high and lofty discourses; because
in our minds, even if lying should be their fifth element, this does not prevent that the
truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior intellects, though not of wandering wits.
But you who live in dreams are better pleased by the sophistical reasons and frauds of
wits in great and uncertain things, than by those reasons which are certain and natural
and not so far above us.

 Avoid studies of which the result dies with the worker.

 Men are in error when they lament the flight of time, accusing it of being too swift, and
not perceiving that it is sufficient as it passes; but good memory, with which nature has
endowed us, causes things long past to seem present.

 Learning acquired in youth arrests the evil of old age; and if you understand that old
age has wisdom for its food, you will so conduct yourself in youth that your old age will
not lack for nourishment.

 The acquisition of any 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.

 As a day well spent procures a happy sleep, so a life well employed procures a happy
death.

 The water you touch in a river is the last of that which has passed, and the first of that
which is coming. Thus it is with time present.

 Just as eating against one’s will is injurious to health, so studying without a liking for it
spoils the memory, and it retains nothing it takes in.[1]

 Just as iron rusts unless it is used, and water putrifies or, in cold, turns to ice, so our
intellect spoils unless it is kept in use.
 Variant: Just as iron rusts from disuse... even so does inaction spoil the intellect.
 You do ill if you praise, and still worse if you reprove in a matter you do not
understand.

 It seems to me that men of coarse and clumsy habits and of small knowledge do not
deserve such fine instruments nor so great a variety of natural mechanism as men of
speculation and of great knowledge; but merely a sack in which their food may be
stowed and whence it may issue, since they cannot be judged to be any thing else than
vehicles for food; for it seems to me they have nothing about them of the human species
but the voice and the figure, and for all the rest are much below beasts.

 Some there are who are nothing else than a passage for food and augmentors of
excrement and fillers of privies, because through them no other things in the world, nor
any good effects are produced, since nothing but full privies results from them.

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

 Blind ignorance misleads us thus and delights with the results of lascivious joys.
Because it does not know the true light. Because it does not know what is the true light.
Vain splendour takes from us the power of being .... behold! for its vain splendour we go
into the fire, thus blind ignorance does mislead us. That is, blind ignorance so misleads
us that... O! wretched mortals, open your eyes.

 That is not riches, which may be lost; virtue is our true good and the true reward
of its possessor. That cannot be lost; that never deserts us, but when life leaves
us. As to property and external riches, hold them with trembling; they often leave
their possessor in contempt, and mocked at for having lost them.

 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.

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

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

 That man is of supreme folly who always wants for fear of wanting; and his life flies
away while he is still hoping to enjoy the good things which he has with extreme labour
acquired.

 We ought not to desire the impossible.

 Ask counsel of him who rules himself well.

 Chi non punisce il male comanda che si faccia.

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

 The grave will fall in upon him who digs it.

 You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.

 Chi poco pensa, molto erra.

 He who thinks little, errs much.

 It is easier to contend with evil at the first than at the last.

 Where there is most feeling, there is the greatest martyrdom.

 The memory of benefits is a frail defence against ingratitude.

 Reprove your friend in secret and praise him openly.

 Be not false about the past.

 Patience serves us against insults precisely as clothes do against the cold. For if you
multiply your garments as the cold increases, that cold cannot hurt you; in the same way
increase your patience under great offences, and they cannot hurt your feelings.

 To speak well of a base man is much the same as speaking ill of a good man.

 Envy wounds with false accusations, that is with detraction, a thing which scares virtue.

 We are deceived by promises and time disappoints us...

 Fear arises sooner than anything else.

 Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.

 Threats alone are the weapons of the threatened man.

 Wherever good fortune enters, envy lays siege to the place and attacks it; and
when it departs, sorrow and repentance remain behind.
 He who walks straight rarely falls.

 It is bad if you praise, and worse if you reprove a thing, I mean, if you do not understand
the matter well.

 It is ill to praise, and worse to reprimand in matters that you do not understand.

 The lover is moved by the beloved object as the senses are by sensual objects; and
they unite and become one and the same thing. The work is the first thing born of this
union; if the thing loved is base the lover becomes base.

 When the thing taken into union is perfectly adapted to that which receives it, the
result is delight and pleasure and satisfaction.

 When that which loves is united to the thing beloved it can rest there; when the burden
is laid down it finds rest there. There will be eternal fame also for the inhabitants of that
town, constructed and enlarged by him.

 The city will gain beauty worthy of its name and to you it will be useful by its
revenues, and the eternal fame of its aggrandizement.
 These notes were possibly written in preparation for a letter. The meaning is
obscure.

 To preserve Nature's chiefest boon, that is freedom, I can find means of offence and
defence, when it is assailed by ambitious tyrants, and first I will speak of the situation of
the walls, and also I shall show how communities can maintain their good and just
Lords.

 The false interpreters of nature declare that quicksilver is the common seed of every
metal, not remembering that nature varies the seed according to the variety of the things
she desires to produce in the world.

 Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitude.
Pharisees — that is to say, friars.

 It is true that impatience, the mother of stupidity, praises brevity, as if such

persons had not life long enough to serve them to acquire a complete knowledge
of one single subject, such as the human body; and then they want to
comprehend the mind of God in which the universe is included, weighing it
minutely and mincing it into infinite parts, as if they had to dissect it!
 Oh! human stupidity, do you not perceive that, though you have been with yourself all
your life, you are not yet aware of the thing you possess most of, that is of your folly?
and then, with the crowd of sophists, you deceive yourselves and others, despising the
mathematical sciences, in which truth dwells and the knowledge of the things included in
them. And then you occupy yourself with miracles, and write that you possess
information of those things of which the human mind is incapable and which cannot be
proved by any instance from nature. And you fancy you have wrought miracles when
you spoil a work of some speculative mind, and do not perceive that you are falling into
the same error as that of a man who strips a tree of the ornament of its branches
covered with leaves mingled with the scented blossoms or fruit.

 The spirit has no voice, because where there is a voice there is a body, and where there
is a body space is occupied, and this prevents the eye from seeing what is placed
behind that space; hence the surrounding air is filled by the body, that is by its image.

 In order to prove whether the spirit can speak or not, it is necessary in the first
place to define what a voice is and how it is generated.

 Every quantity is intellectually conceivable as infinitely divisible.

 Amid the vastness of the things among which we live, the existence of
nothingness holds the first place; its function extends over all things that have no
existence, and its essence, as regards time, lies precisely between the past and
the future, and has nothing in the present. This nothingness has the part equal to the
whole, and the whole to the part, the divisible to the indivisible; and the product of the
sum is the same whether we divide or multiply, and in addition as in subtraction; as is
proved by arithmeticians by their tenth figure which represents zero; and its power has
not extension among the things of Nature.

 What is called Nothingness is to be found only in time and in speech. In time it

stands between the past and future and has no existence in the present; and thus in
speech it is one of the things of which we say: They are not, or they are impossible.

 O mighty and once living instrument of formative nature. Incapable of availing thyself of
thy vast strength thou hast to abandon a life of stillness and to obey the law which God
and time gave to procreative nature.
 Of the lightning in clouds.
 O time, swift robber of all created things, how many kings, how many nations hast
thou undone, and how many changes of states and of various events have
happened since the wondrous forms of this fish perished here in this cavernous
and winding recess. Now destroyed by time thou liest patiently in this confined
space with bones stripped and bare; serving as a support and prop for the
superimposed mountain.
XX Humorous Writings[edit]

Like unto this is the love of virtue. It never looks at any vile or base thing, but rather clings always
to pure and virtuous things and takes up its abode in a noble heart; as the birds do in green
woods on flowery branches.

We see the most striking example of humility in the lamb… so that very often it has been seen
that the lions forbear to kill them.
 Things that are separate shall be united and acquire such virtue that they will restore to man his
lost memory.

 The Caladrius is a bird of which it is related that, when it is carried into the
presence of a sick person, if the sick man is going to die, the bird turns away its
head and never looks at him; but if the sick man is to be saved the bird never
loses sight of him but is the cause of curing him of all his sickness. Like unto this
is the love of virtue. It never looks at any vile or base thing, but rather clings
always to pure and virtuous things and takes up its abode in a noble heart; as the
birds do in green woods on flowery branches. And this Love shows itself more in
adversity than in prosperity; as light does, which shines most where the place is
darkest.

 The unicorn, through its intemperance and not knowing how to control itself, for the love
it bears to fair maidens forgets its ferocity and wildness; and laying aside all fear it will
go up to a seated damsel and go to sleep in her lap, and thus the hunters take it.

 We see the most striking example of humility in the lamb which will submit to any
animal; and when they are given for food to imprisoned lions they are as gentle to
them as to their own mother, so that very often it has been seen that the lions
forbear to kill them.

 The cock does not crow till it has thrice flapped its wings; the parrot in moving among
boughs never puts its feet excepting where it has first put its beak. Vows are not made
till Hope is dead.
 A man was desired to rise from bed, because the sun was already risen. To which he
replied: "If I had as far to go, and as much to do as he has, I should be risen by now; but
having but a little way to go, I shall not rise yet."

 First, of things relating to animals; secondly, of irrational creatures; thirdly of plants;

fourthly, of ceremonies; fifthly, of manners; sixthly, of cases or edicts or quarrels;
seventhly, of cases that are impossible in nature [paradoxes], as, for instance, of those
things which, the more is taken from them, the more they grow. And reserve the great
matters till the end, and the small matters give at the beginning.

 Men will seem to see new destructions in the sky. The flames that fall from it will
seem to rise in it and to fly from it with terror. They will hear every kind of animals speak
in human language. They will instantaneously run in person in various parts of the
world, without motion. They will see the greatest splendour in the midst of
darkness. O! marvel of the human race! What madness has led you thus! You will
speak with animals of every species and they with you in human speech. You will see
yourself fall from great heights without any harm and torrents will accompany you, and
will mingle with their rapid course.
 Of dreams

 There will be many who will eagerly and with great care and solicitude follow up a thing,
which, if they only knew its malignity, would always terrify them. Of those men, who, the
older they grow, the more avaricious they become, whereas, having but little time to
stay, they should become more liberal.

 Many will be busied in taking away from a thing, which will grow in proportion as it is
diminished.
 Of a ditch

 Oh! how foul a thing, that we should see the tongue of one animal in the guts of another.
 Of the Tongues of Pigs and Calves in Sausage-skins.

 There will be great winds by reason of which things of the East will become
things of the West; and those of the South, being involved in the course of the winds,
will follow them to distant lands.

 There will be many men who will move one against another, holding in their hands a
cutting tool. But these will not do each other any injury beyond tiring each other; for,
 when one pushes forward the other will draw back. But woe to him who comes between
them! For he will end by being cut in pieces.

 That which was at first bound, cast out and rent by many and various beaters will
be respected and honoured, and its precepts will be listened to with reverence
and love.

 One who by himself is mild enough and void of all offence will become terrible and fierce
by being in bad company, and will most cruelly take the life of many men, and would kill
many more if they were not hindered by bodies having no soul, that have come out of
caverns — that is, breastplates of iron.

 One shall be born from small beginnings which will rapidly become vast. This will
respect no created thing, rather will it, by its power, transform almost every thing
from its own nature into another.
 "Of fire"

 All the elements will be seen mixed together in a great whirling mass, now borne
towards the centre of the world, now towards the sky; and now furiously rushing from
the South towards the frozen North, and sometimes from the East towards the West,
and then again from this hemisphere to the other.
 "Of Water, which flows turbid and mixed with Soil and Dust; and of Mist, which is
mixed with the Air; and of Fire which is mixed with its own, and each with each."

 Men standing in opposite hemispheres will converse and deride each other and
embrace each other, and understand each other's language.
 "Of Hemispheres, which are infinite; and which are divided by an infinite number of
Lines, so that every Man always has one of these Lines between his Feet."

 Many will there be who will give up work and labour and poverty of life and goods, and
will go to live among wealth in splendid buildings, declaring that this is the way to make
themselves acceptable to God.

 An infinite number of men will sell publicly and unhindered things of the very highest
price, without leave from the Master of it; while it never was theirs nor in their power;
and human justice will not prevent it.
 "Of Selling Paradise"
 Animals will be seen on the earth who will always be fighting against each other
with the greatest loss and frequent deaths on each side. And there will be no end to
their malignity; by their strong limbs we shall see a great portion of the trees of the vast
forests laid low throughout the universe; and, when they are filled with food the
satisfaction of their desires will be to deal death and grief and labour and wars and fury
to every living thing; and from their immoderate pride they will desire to rise towards
heaven, but the too great weight of their limbs will keep them down. Nothing will remain
on earth, or under the earth or in the waters which will not be persecuted, disturbed and
spoiled, and those of one country removed into another. And their bodies will become
the sepulture and means of transit of all they have killed.
O Earth! why dost thou not open and engulf them in the fissures of thy vast abyss and
caverns, and no longer display in the sight of heaven such a cruel and horrible monster.
 "Of the Cruelty of Man"

 There will be many which will increase in their destruction.

 "The Ball of Snow rolling over Snow"

 The East will be seen to rush to the West and the South to the North in confusion round
and about the universe, with great noise and trembling or fury.
 "In the East wind which rushes to the West"

 The solar rays will kindle fire on the earth, by which a thing that is under the sky will be
set on fire, and, being reflected by some obstacle, it will bend downwards.

 Happy will they be who lend ear to the words of the Dead.

 Men out of fear will cling to the thing they most fear.

 Things that are separate shall be united and acquire such virtue that they will
restore to man his lost memory.
 Of papyrus

 The bones of the Dead will be seen to govern the fortunes of him who moves them.
 Of Dice

 The vine that has grown old on an old tree falls with the ruin of that tree, and through
that bad companionship must perish with it.
 The ball of snow when, as it rolls, it descends from the snowy mountains, increases in
size as it falls.

 A vase of unbaked clay, when broken, may be remoulded, but not a baked one.

 The image of the sun where it falls appears as a thing which covers the person
who attempts to cover it.
XXI Letters. Personal Records. Dated Notes.[edit]

Tell me if anything was ever done.

 I have seen motions of the air so furious that they have carried, mixed up in their course,
the largest trees of the forest and whole roofs of great palaces, and I have seen the
same fury bore a hole with a whirling movement digging out a gravel pit, and carrying
gravel, sand and water more than half a mile through the air.

 Like a whirling wind which rushes down a sandy and hollow valley, and which, in its
hasty course, drives to its centre every thing that opposes its furious course... No
otherwise does the Northern blast whirl round in its tempestuous progress ...

 It vexes me greatly that having to earn my living has forced me to interrupt the
work and to attend to small matters.

 If you meet with any one who is virtuous do not drive him from you; do him honour, so
that he may not have to flee from you and be reduced to hiding in hermitages, or caves
or other solitary places to escape from your treachery; if there is such an one among
you do him honour, for these are our Saints upon earth; these are they who deserve
statues from us, and images...

 May it please our great Author that I may demonstrate the nature of man and his
customs, in the way I describe his figure.
  This writing distinctly about the kite seems to be my destiny, because among the first
recollections of my infancy, it seemed to me that, as I was in my cradle, a kite came to
me and opened my mouth with its tail, and struck me several times with its tail inside my
lips.

 When I did well, as a boy you used to put me in prison. Now if I do it being grown
up, you will do worse to me.

 Tell me if anything was ever done.

 This was written in his notebooks in despair of so many projects that were never
completed.

 Do not reveal, if liberty is precious to you; my face is the prison of love.

 I ask at what part of its curved motion the moving cause will leave the thing moved and
moveable.

 If any man could have discovered the utmost powers of the cannon, in all its various
forms and have given such a secret to the Romans, with what rapidity would they have
conquered every country and have vanquished every army, and what reward could
have been great enough for such a service! Archimedes indeed, although he had
greatly damaged the Romans in the siege of Syracuse, nevertheless did not fail of being
offered great rewards from these very Romans; and when Syracuse was taken, diligent
search was made for Archimedes; and he being found dead greater lamentation was
made for him by the Senate and people of Rome than if they had lost all their army; and
they did not fail to honour him with burial and with a statue.

 Reserve the great matters till the end, and the small matters give at the beginning.
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (MacCurdy, 1938)[edit]
These quotes are primarily from the English translation by Edward MacCurdy of 1938

I Philosophy[edit]

 Every part is disposed to unite with the whole, that it may thereby escape from its
own incompleteness.

 The mind passes in an instant from east to west; and all the great incorporeal things
resemble these very closely in speed.

 While I thought I have been learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.
 Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.

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

 Where there is most power of feeling, there of martyrs is the greatest martyr.

 Science, knowledge of the things that are possible present and past; prescience,
knowledge of the things which may come to pass.

 To enjoy—to love a thing for its own sake and for no other reason.

 Life well spent is long.

 Observe the light and consider its beauty. Blink your eye and look at it. That which
you see was not there at first, and that which was there is there no more.

 The water which rises in the mountain is the blood which keeps the mountain in life.

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

 Nature is full of infinite causes which were never set forth in experience.

 Wine is good, but water is preferable at table.

 He who suffers time to slip away and does not grow in virtue the more one thinks
about him the sadder one becomes. No man has a capacity for virtue who
sacrifices honour for gain. Fortune is powerless to help one who does not
exert himself. That man becomes happy who follows Christ. There is no
perfect gift without great suffering. Our triumphs and our pomps pass
away; gluttony and sloth and enervating luxury have banished every virtue from the
world; so that as it were wandering from its course our nature is subdued by habit.
Now and henceforth it is meet that you cure yourself of laziness. The Master has
said that sitting on down or lying under the quilts will not bring thee to fame. He who
without it has frittered life away leaves no more trace of himself upon the earth than
smoke does in the air or the foam on the water.
 p. 91
XVII Flight[edit]

 Since the wings are swifter to press the air than the air is to escape from beneath
the wings the air becomes condensed and resists the movement of the wings; and
 the motive power of these wings by subduing the resistance of the air raises itself in
a contrary movement to the movement of the wings.

 A bird makes the same use of wings and tail in the air as a swimmer does of his
arms and legs in the water.

 Every body that is moved continues to move so long as the impression of the force
of its mover is retained in it, therefore the movement of this wing with violence... will
come to move the whole bird with it until the impetus of the moved air has been
consumed.

 Remember that your bird should have no other model than the bat, because its
membranes serve as an armour or rather as a means of building together the
pieces of its armour, that is the framework of the wings.

 If you take as your pattern the wings of feathered birds, these are more powerful in
structure of bone and sinew because they are penetrable, that is to say the feathers
are separated from one another and the air passes through them. But the bat is
aided by its membrane, which binds the whole together and is not penetrated by the
air.

 You will perhaps say that the sinews and muscles of a bird are incomparably more
powerful than those of a man... But the reply to this is that such great strength gives
it a reserve of power beyond what it ordinarily uses...

 Swimming upon water teaches men how birds do upon the air.

 The air which is struck with most swiftness by the movable thing is compressed to
the greatest degree in itself.

 The function which the wing performs against the air when the air is motionless is
the same as that of the air moved against the wings when these are without motion.

 It is always the under side of the branches of any plant that show themselves to the
wind which strikes it, and one leans against the other.

 That part of the air which is nearest to the wing which presses on it, will have the
greatest density.

 The properties of the air are such that it may become condensed or rarefied.
 No impetus created by any movement whatever can be immediately consumed, but
if it finds an object which has a great resistance it consumes itself in a reflex
movement.

 Impetus is a power of the mover applied in a movable thing which causes the
movable thing to move after it is separated from its mover.
XXIX Precepts of the Painter[edit]

 Painting is concerned with all the ten attributes of sight, namely darkness and
brightness, substance and colour, form and place, remoteness and nearness,
movement and rest; and it is with these attributes that this my small book will be
woven, recalling to the painter by what rules and in what way he ought by his art to
imitate all things that are the work of nature and the adornment of the world.

 Whenever you make a figure of a man or of some graceful animal remember to

avoid making it seem wooden; that is it should move with counterpoise and balance
in such a way as not to seem a block of wood.

 I give the degrees of things seen by the eye as the musician does of the sounds
heard by the ear.

 When you have drawn the same thing so many times that it seems that you know it
by heart try to do it without the model; but having a tracing made of the model upon
a thin piece of smooth glass and lay this upon the drawing you have made without
the model. ...where you find that you have erred bear it in mind in order not to make
the mistake again. ...if you cannot procure smooth glass to make a tracing... take a
piece of very fine parchment well oiled and then dried, and when you have used it
for for one drawing you can wipe this out with a sponge and do a second.

 Take a piece of glass of the size of a half sheet of royal folio paper, and fix it...
between your eye and the object you wish to portray. Then move it away until your
eye is two-thirds of a braccio away from the piece of glass, and fasten your head by
means of an instrument in such a way as to prevent any movement of it whatsoever.
Then close or cover up one eye, and with a brush or a piece of red chalk finely
ground mark out on the glass what is visible beyond it; afterwards, copy it by tracing
on paper from the glass, then prick it out upon paper of a better quality and paint it if
you so desire, paying special attention to the aerial perspective.
 If you wish to thoroughly accustom yourself to correct and good positions for your
fingers, fasten a frame or a loom divided into squares by threads between your eye
and the nude figure which you are representing, and then make the same squares
upon the paper where you wish to draw the said nude but very faintly. You should
then put a pellet of wax on a part of the network to serve as a mark which as you
look at your model should always cover the pit of the throat, or if he should have
turned his back make it cover one of the vertebrae of the neck. ...The squares you
draw may be as much smaller than those of the network in proportion as you wish
your figure to be less than life size...

 When you wish to see whether the general effect of your picture corresponds with
that of the object represented after nature, take a mirror and set it so that it reflects
the actual thing, and then compare the reflection with your picture, and consider
carefully whether the subject of the two images is in conformity with both, studying
especially the mirror. The mirror ought to be taken as a guide... you see the picture
made upon one plane showing things which appear in relief, and the mirror upon
one plane does the same. The picture is on one single surface, and the mirror is the
same. ...if you but know well how to compose your picture it will also seem a natural
thing seen in a great mirror.

 You know that in an atmosphere of uniform density the most distant things seen
through it, such as the mountains, in consequence of the great quantity of
atmosphere which is between your eye and them, will appear blue. Therfore you
should make the building... wall which is more distant less defined and bluer. ...five
times as far away make five times as blue.

 Painting embraces and contains within itself all the things which nature produces or
which results from the fortuitous actions of men... he is but a poor master who
makes only a single figure well.

 Surely when a man is painting a picture he ought not refuse to hear any man's
opinion... Since men are able to form a true judgement as to the works of nature,
how much more does it behoove us to admit that they are able to judge our faults.
Therefore you should be desirous of hearing patiently the opinions of others, and
consider and reflect carefully whether or no he who censures you has reason for his
censure; and correct your work if you find that he is right, but if not, then let it seem
that you have not understood him, or, in case he is a man whom you esteem, show
him by argument why it is that he is mistaken.
XLV Prophecies[edit]
 Happy will be those who give ear to the words of the dead:—The reading of good
works and the observing of their precepts.

 Feathers shall raise men towards the heaven even as they do the birds:—That is by
the letters written by their quills.

 Things severed shall be united and shall acquire of themselves such virtue that they
shall restore to men their lost memory:—That is the papyrus sheets, which are
formed out of several strips and preserve the memory of the thoughts and deeds of
men.

 Men will deal rude blows to that which is the cause of their life:—They will thrash the
grain.

 The wind which passes through the skins of animals will make men leap up:—That
is the bagpipes, which cause men to dance.