Leonardo da Vinci (inventor)

Here forms, here colours, here the character of every part of theare concentrated to a point; and that point is so marvellous a thing ... Oh! marvellous, O stupendous— by thythou dost compel every effect to be the direct result of its cause, by the shortest path. These are ...

— Leonardo da Vinci art

The— which sees all objects reversed — retains the images for some time.

— Leonardo da Vinci time

These quotes are primarily from the English translation by Jean Paul Richter of 1888 (not all of them can be confirmed)

— Leonardo da Vinci quotes

Let no man who is not aread the elements of my .

— Leonardo da Vinci men

As a well-spent day brings, sowell used brings happy .

— Leonardo da Vinci happy

Life well spent is long.

— Leonardo da Vinci life

Poor is the pupil that does not surpass his master.

— Leonardo da Vinci poor

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

— Leonardo da Vinci work

He who does not punishcommands that it be done.

— Leonardo da Vinci man

Whoever in discussion adducesuses notbut rather .

— 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 of the mind.

— Leonardo da Vinci mind

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

— Leonardo da Vinci end

is the mistress and guardian of .

— Leonardo da Vinci stress

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 nature

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

— Leonardo da Vinci science

I am not to blame for putting forward, in the course of myon , any generalderived from a previous conclusion.

— Leonardo da Vinci war

The Book of theof Mechanics must precede the Book of useful inventions.

— Leonardo da Vinci book

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci war

I know that many will call this useless work.

— Leonardo da Vinci 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.

— Leonardo da Vinci work

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci work

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci work

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci science

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci art

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci work

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci science

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci love

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci pain

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...

— Leonardo da Vinci art

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 light

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci time

The boundaries of bodies are the least of all things.

— Leonardo da Vinci die

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

— Leonardo da Vinci knowledge

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci art

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci age

A point is not part of a line.

— Leonardo da Vinci art

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci math

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci art

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci space

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci art

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci nature

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci art

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci knowledge

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci art

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 age

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci nature

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci nature

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci light

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci self

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci self

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

— Leonardo da Vinci art

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci time

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci age

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci war

Thecreated and destroyed me.

— Leonardo da Vinci create

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

— Leonardo da Vinci die

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci light

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci nature

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

— Leonardo da Vinci 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.

— Leonardo da Vinci light

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

— Leonardo da Vinci war

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

— Leonardo da Vinci 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.

— Leonardo da Vinci light

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

— Leonardo da Vinci art

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci art

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci light

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci art

If you transmit the rays of the sun through a hole in the shape of ayou will see a beautiful effect of perspective in the spot where the sun's rays fall.

— Leonardo da Vinci beautiful

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci body

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci work

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci light

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci light

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

— Leonardo da Vinci body

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci dark

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci art

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

— Leonardo da Vinci body

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci art

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci beautiful

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

— Leonardo da Vinci darkness

The sun gives spirit and life to plants and the earth nourishes them with moisture.

— Leonardo da Vinci life

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, thein their .

— Leonardo da Vinci man

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

— Leonardo da Vinci men

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci love

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci 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

— Leonardo da Vinci present

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci war

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

— Leonardo da Vinci men

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.

— Leonardo da Vinci 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.

— Leonardo da Vinci philosophy

The painter strives and competes with nature.

— Leonardo da Vinci nature

at last cannot be hidden. Dissimulation is of no avail. Dissimulation is to nobefore so great a . …is hidden under the .

— Leonardo da Vinci great

Movement will cease before we are weary of being useful.

— Leonardo da Vinci men

We, by ourmay be called the grandsons of .

— Leonardo da Vinci

Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to adoes not change his .

— Leonardo da Vinci change

Ivy is of longevity.

— Leonardo da Vinci

destroys falsehood, that is sophistry, and restores , driving out .

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci truth

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

— Leonardo da Vinci truth

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