200 Famous Leonardo Da Vinci Quotes

Here we have compiled a list of 200 best and famous inspirational quotes of Leonardo Da Vinci and sayings about water, learning, and art.

Leonardo Da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance-era painter who became one of the world’s most influential people due to his unbelievable inventions. He is often depicted as a genius who single-handedly invented the helicopter, the airplane, and many other modern inventions.

Vinci even predicted an idea for what we now know to be a submarine! As if this wasn’t enough, some paintings still stunt people today – such as Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile or The Last Supper rioting in vivid colors across its canvas. This is why Leonardo da Vinci remains one of history’s most celebrated figures: not only does he embody the spirit of creativity but ingenuity too.

So, let’s begin exploring these 200 best and famous quotes by the incredible multitalented personality, Leonardo Da Vinci, and we hope you’ll enjoy it.

Leonardo da Vinci Inspirational Quotes

“Time stays long enough for those who use it.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Tears come from the heart and not from the brain.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“A clever man without wisdom is like a beautiful flower without fragrance.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The most beautiful words of love are told in silence for a look.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Threats alone, are the weapons of the threatened man.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The greater the man’s soul, the deeper he loves.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Experience does not err. Only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Strive to preserve your health; and in this, you will better succeed in proportion as you keep clear of the physicians, for their drugs are a kind of alchemy concerning which there are no fewer books than there are medicines.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Who would believe that so small a space could contain the images of all the universe?” — Leonardo da Vinci
“He who does not understand the supreme certainty of mathematics is wallowing in confusion.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitudes.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature. Necessity is the theme and inventors of nature, her curb and her eternal law.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“It is an acknowledged fact that we perceive errors in the work of others more readily than in our own.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The natural desire of good men is knowledge.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Of the original phenomena, light is the most enthralling.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“It’s not enough that you believe what you see. You must also understand what you see.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Beyond a doubt, truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Experiment is the sole interpreter of the artifices of Nature.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The young man should first learn perspective, then the proportions of objects. Next, copy work after the hand of a good master, to gain the habit of drawing parts of the body well; and then to work from nature, to confirm the lessons learned.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The study of what is excellent is food for the mind and body.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The faculty of imagination is both the rudder and the bridle of the senses.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“I wish to work miracles…” — Leonardo da Vinci
“It is useful to constantly observe, note, and consider.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“A life well used procures a happy death.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“To enjoy – to love a thing for its own sake and for no other reason.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Whatever you do in life, if you want to be creative and intelligent, and develop your brain, you must do everything with the awareness that everything, in some way, connects to everything else.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience, it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Your brain is much better than you think; just use it!” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Avoid the precepts of those thinkers whose reasoning is not confirmed by experience.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Science is the captain, and practice the soldiers.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Those who are enamored of practice without science are like a pilot who goes into a ship without rudder or compass and never has any certainty of where he is going. Practice should always be based upon a sound knowledge of theory.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“I’m not contented to capture the world. I want to change it.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Medicine is the restoration of discordant elements.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Learn diligence before speedy execution.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“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, and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Practice should always be based upon a sound knowledge of theory.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The spirit desires to remain with its body, because, without the organic instruments of that body, it can neither act, nor feel anything.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The supreme misfortune is when theory outstrips performance.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“To any white body receiving the light from the sun, or the air, the shadows will be of a bluish cast.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The human bird shall take his first flight, filling the world with amazement, all writings with his fame, and bringing eternal glory to the nest whence he sprang.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior intellects.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“O speculators about perpetual motion, how many vain chimeras have you created in the like quest? Go and take your place with the seekers after gold.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far below the musician in that of invisible things.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Nature alone is the master of true genius.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Instrumental or mechanical science is the noblest and above all others, the most useful.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“A good memory, which nature has endowed us with, causes things long past to seem present.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Who sows virtue reaps honor.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Being willing is not enough. We must do.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Just as iron rusts from disuse, even so, does inaction spoil the intellect.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Among the great things which are to be found among us, the being of nothingness is the greatest.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Music may be called the sister of painting, for she is dependent upon hearing, the sense which comes second and her harmony is composed of the union of proportional parts sounded simultaneously, rising and falling in one or more harmonic rhythms.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“There shall be wings! If the accomplishment be not for me, ’tis for some other. The spirit cannot die; and man, who shall know all and shall have wings.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The eye is the window of the human body through which it feels its way and enjoys the beauty of the world.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Darkness is absence of light. Shadow is diminution of light.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The five senses are the ministers of the soul.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Whoever in debate quotes authority uses not intellect, but memory.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Here is a thing which the more it is needed, the more it is rejected: and this is advice, which is unwillingly heeded by those who most need it, that is to say, by the ignorant.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The color of the object illuminated partakes of the color of that which illuminates it.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The greatest geniuses sometimes accomplish more when they work less.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Whoever does not respect life does not deserve it.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“He who truly knows has no occasion to shout.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The motive power is the cause of all life.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Not to anticipate is already to moan.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“No human investigation can be called real science if it cannot be demonstrated mathematically.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Fire is to represent truth because it destroys all sophistry and lies, and the mask is for lying and falsehood which conceal truth.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“If you put on more garments, the cold cannot reach you. Similarly, increase your patience and concentration, and even great injuries cannot vex your mind.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Nothing is hidden under the sun.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“You don’t get into trouble because of the things you don’t know. It is the things you don’t know you don’t know that really get you into a mess.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“A gray day provides the best light.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Let proportion be found not only in numbers and measures, but also in sounds, weights, times, and positions, and what ever force there is.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Feathers shall raise men even as they do birds towards heaven: – That is by letters written with their quills.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Small rooms or dwellings discipline the mind; large ones weaken it.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The eye, the window of the soul, is the chief means whereby the understanding can most fully and abundantly appreciate the infinite works of Nature; and the ear is second.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Savage is he who saves himself.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Men wrongly lament the flight of time, blaming it for being too swift; they do not perceive that its passage is sufficiently long, but a good memory, which nature has given to us, causes things long past to seem present.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Whoever despises the high wisdom of mathematics nourishes himself on delusion and will never still the sophistic sciences whose only product is an eternal uproar.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Inequality is the cause of all local movements.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The sun gives spirit and life to the plants, and the earth nourishes them with moisture.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“If you are on the side whence the wind is blowing, you will see the trees looking much lighter than you would see them on the other sides; and this is due to the fact that the wind turns up the reverse side of the leaves which in all trees is much whiter than the upper side.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“If you are representing a white body, let it be surrounded by ample space because as white has no color of its own, it is tinged and altered in some degree by the color of the objects surrounding it.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Envy wounds with false accusations, that is with detraction, a thing which scares virtue.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“If you find from your own experience that something is a fact and it contradicts what some authority has written down, then you must abandon the authority and base your reasoning on your own findings.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“I awoke, only to see that the rest of the world is still asleep.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Our life is made by the death of others.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Those who are inspired by a model other than Nature, labor in vain.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“If you do not rest on the good foundation of nature, you will labor with little honor and less profit.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Lust is the cause of generation.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The deeper the feeling, the greater the pain.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“A diamond is just a lump of coal that stuck to its job.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Every obstacle is destroyed through rigor.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Everything comes from everything, and everything is made out of everything, and everything returns into everything.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The desire to know is natural to good men.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Therefore, O students, study mathematics and do not build without foundations.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Vitality and beauty are gifts of Nature for those who live according to its laws.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“He who walks straight rarely falls.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The discovery of a good wine is increasingly better for mankind than the discovery of a new star.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The smallest feline is a masterpiece.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“An arch consists of two weaknesses which, leaning one against the other, make a strength.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Such is the supreme folly of man that he labors so as to labor no more.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Medicine is the restoration of discordant elements; sickness is the discord of the elements infused into the living body.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Life well spent is long.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“He turns not back who is bound to a star.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The 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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The mind that engages in subjects of too great variety becomes confused and weakened.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“I have offended God and mankind because my work didn’t reach the quality it should have.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work, your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“He who wishes to be rich within a day will be hanged within a year.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“I love those who can smile in trouble…” — Leonardo da Vinci
“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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The moment is timeless.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Fix your course on a star, and you’ll navigate any storm.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“God sells us all things at the price of labor.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“My body will not be a tomb for other creatures.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Nature never breaks her own laws.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Wisdom is the daughter of experience.” — Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci Quotes About Water

“Just as iron rusts from disuse and stagnant water putrefies, or when cold turns to ice, so our intellect wastes unless it is kept in use.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“He who has access to the fountain does not go to the water-pot.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Just as iron which is not used grows rusty, and water putrefies and freezes in the cold, so the mind of which no use is made is spoilt.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so, with present time.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“If you cause your ship to stop and place the head of a long tube in the water and place the outer extremity to your ear, you will hear ships at a great distance from you.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor’s of the mind.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“In time and with water, everything changes.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“To make a perfume, take some rose water and wash your hands in it, then take a lavender flower and rub it with your palms, and you will achieve the desired effect.” — Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci Quotes About learning

“Learning never exhausts the mind.” — Leonardo da Vinci
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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“All sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of Experience, the mother of all Knowledge.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The wisest and noblest teacher is nature itself.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The knowledge of all things is possible.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“As you cannot do what you want, want what you can do.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“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.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“As every divided kingdom fall, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Make yourself a master of perspective, then acquire perfect knowledge of the proportions of men and other animals.” — Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci Quotes About Art

A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“When you draw a nude, sketch the whole figure and nicely fit the members to it and to each other. Even though you may only finish one portion of the drawing, just make certain that all the parts hang together, so that the study will be useful to you in the future.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses- especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Beauty perishes in life, but is immortal in art.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Painting is concerned with all the 10 attributes of sight; which are: Darkness, Light, Solidity and Color, Form and Position, Distance and Propinquity, Motion and Rest.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“If you call painting dumb poetry, the painter may call poetry blind painting.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The mind of a painter should be like a mirror which is filled with as many images as there are things placed before him.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“An artist’s studio should be a small space because small rooms discipline the mind and large ones distract it.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Poetry is superior to painting in the presentation of words, and painting is superior to poetry in the presentation of facts. For this reason, I judge painting to be superior to poetry.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Perspective is to painting what the bridle is to the horse, the rudder to a ship.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“The painter must be solitary. For if you are alone, you are completely yourself, but if you are accompanied by a single companion, you are only half yourself.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“That painter who has no doubts will achieve little.” — Leonardo da Vinci

What was Leonardo da Vinci best known for?

Leonardo da Vinci was a painter, scientist, and engineer whose works helped to shape the Renaissance era. His most famous work is “The Mona Lisa.”

He was best known as an artist, but he also had many achievements in other fields such as engineering or science, making him one of his period’s top innovators.

Did Leonardo da Vinci have a nickname?

Leonardo da Vinci was a great painter, inventor, and scientist. He spent his life trying to understand the world around him by drawing on things like anatomy and mathematics, which led some people to call him Leo “The Renaissance Man” because of all these varied interests.

What are the 5 facts about Leonardo da Vinci?

Leonardo da Vinci never formally added his last name to any of his work. Instead, he would sign with the town where he was born: “Leonardo from Vinci” – which is why it’s translated as “da Vinci” rather than simply just being called Leonardo or Leonard.
Leonardo was a brilliant painter and scientist, but it might be surprising to know that he didn’t receive much formal education. As a child, he learned the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, but most of his deep learning came later in life.
Leonardo da Vinci was a man ahead of his time. He studied the human body, but not just from what others had seen before him. Leonardo performed 30 dissections to understand more about how it worked and interacted with its environment.
Leonardo da Vinci was a military architect and general engineer who traveled around Borgia’s different territories to survey them. He created many cities plans that foreshadowed modern cartography.
At 15, Leonardo started apprenticing under Andrea del Verrocchio and became one of the most renowned artists of all time.