Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, more commonly Leonardo da Vinci or simply Leonardoˈvintʃi] ; 15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519), was an Italian polymath whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. He has been variously called the father of paleontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter and tank,...
NationalityItalian
ProfessionPainter
Date of Birth15 April 1452
CityVinci, Italy
CountryItaly
Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation ... even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind.
A natural action is accomplished in the briefest manner.
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.
O admirable necessity! O powerful action! What mind can penetrate your nature? What language can express this marvel? None, to be sure. This is where human discourse turns toward the contemplation of the divine.
Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.
I wish to work miracles...
No member needs so great a number of muscles as the tongue; this exceeds all the rest in the number of its movements
There shall be wings! If the accomplishment be not for me, 'tis for some other.
The most praiseworthy form of painting is one that most resembles what it imitates.
Nothing can be love or hated unless it is first known.
Obstacles cannot crush me; every obstacle yields to stern resolve.
Experience does not ever err; it is only your judgment that errs in promising itself results which are not caused by your experiments
When 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.
The painter who is familiar with the nature of the sinews, muscles, and tendons, will know very well, in giving movement to a limb, how many and which sinews cause it; and which muscle, by swelling, causes the contraction of that sinew; and which sinews, expanded into the thinnest cartilage, surround and support the said muscle.