Leonardo da Vinci, born in 1452, was an Italian polymath who made significant contributions in art, science and inventions, exemplifying the term “Renaissance man”.
Self-educated, da Vinci is renowned for his paintings “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper”, while his notebooks brim with inventions and theories spanning various disciplines.
His parents, never married, raised him primarily on his father’s estate in Vinci.
Though formally uneducated, da Vinci was apprenticed to Andrea del Verrocchio, honing his artistic skills.
His career included work in Milan for the Sforza family as a painter, architect and engineer.
His pursuits extended beyond art, studying and drafting designs for novel contraptions like the bicycle and helicopter.
Despite not completing many of his projects, da Vinci’s ideas greatly enriched both art and science.
Related: Gustav Klimt Quotes from the Austrian Painter and Claude Monet Quotes from Famous French Painter
He died in 1519 in France, leaving an enduring legacy across multiple fields.
I have listed the best quotes by Leonardo da Vinci in this post.
Top Leonardo da Vinci Quotes
1. “Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
2. “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
3. “Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
4. “Time stays long enough for those who use it.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
5. “Learning never exhausts the mind.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
6. “The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
7. “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).
8. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
9. “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).
10. “The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
11. “Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
12. “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).
13. “The deeper the feeling, the greater the pain.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
14. “Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
15. “The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
16. “One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
17. “It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
18. “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).
19. “The mind that engages in subjects of too great variety becomes confused and weakened.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
20. “As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
21. “Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
22. “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).
23. “I have offended God and mankind because my work didn’t reach the quality it should have.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
24. “The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
25. “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).
26. “He who wishes to be rich within a day, will be hanged within a year.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
27. “Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
28. “I love those who can smile in trouble…” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
29. “There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
30. “Water is the driving force of all nature.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
31. “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).
32. “Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
33. “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).
Best Leonardo Da Vinci Quotes
34. “As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
35. “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).
36. “Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
37. “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).
38. “Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
39. “Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
40. “The wisest and noblest teacher is nature itself.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
41. “The knowledge of all things is possible.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
42. “Fix your course on a star and you’ll navigate any storm.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
43. “As you cannot do what you want, want what you can do.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
44. “Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
45. “God sells us all things at the price of labor.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
46. “The moment is timeless.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
47. “While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
48. “The most beautiful words of love are told in silence for a look.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
49. “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).
50. “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).
51. “All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
52. “My body will not be a tomb for other creatures.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
53. “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).
54. “Mechanics is the paradise of the mathematical sciences because by means of it one comes to the fruits of mathematics.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
55. “Those who are inspired by a model other than Nature, labor in vain.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
56. “I awoke, only to see that the rest of the world is still asleep.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
57. “We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
58. “Our life is made by the death of others.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
59. “I have been impressed with the urgency of doing.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
60. “Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
61. “An artist’s studio should be a small space because small rooms discipline the mind and large ones distract it.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
62. “Who sows virtue reaps honor.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
63. “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).
64. “Being willing is not enough. We must do.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
65. “Just as iron rusts from disuse, even so does inaction spoil the intellect.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
66. “Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
67. “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).
68. “Nothing is hidden under the sun.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
69. “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).
70. “Savage is he who saves himself.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
Famous Leonardo Da Vinci Quotes
71. “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).
72. “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).
73. “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).
74. “The five senses are the ministers of the soul.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
75. “Whoever in debate quotes authority uses not intellect, but memory.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
76. “The greatest geniuses sometimes accomplish more when they work less.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
77. “He who has access to the fountain does not go to the water-pot.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
78. “He who truly knows has no occasion to shout.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
79. “The motive power is the cause of all life.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
80. “No human investigation can be called real science if it cannot be demonstrated mathematically.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
81. “Make yourself a master of perspective, then acquire perfect knowledge of the proportions of men and other animals.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
82. “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).
83. “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).
84. “Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
85. “Among the great things which are to be found among us, the being of nothingness is the greatest.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
86. “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).
87. “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).
88. “Darkness is absence of light. Shadow is a diminution of light.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
89. “The color of the object illuminated partakes of the color of that which illuminates it.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
90. “Whoever does not respect life, does not deserve it.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
91. “Not to anticipate is already to moan.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
92. “You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
93. “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).
94. “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).
95. “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).
96. “In time and with water, everything changes.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
97. “Feathers shall raise men even as they do birds towards heaven: That is by letters written with their quills.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
98. “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).
99. “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).
100. “Small rooms or dwellings discipline the mind, large ones weaken it.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
101. “Nature never breaks her own laws.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
102. “Wisdom is the daughter of experience.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
103. “Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
Leonardo Da Vinci Quotes for Motivation
104. “Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
105. “The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
106. “Every obstacle is destroyed through rigor.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
107. “Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
108. “Everything comes from everything, and everything is made out of everything, and everything returns into everything.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
109. “An arch consists of two weaknesses which, leaning one against the other, make a strength.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
110. “One has no right to love or hate anything if one has not acquired a thorough knowledge of its nature. Great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you know it but little you will be able to love it only a little or not at all.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
111. “Beauty perishes in life, but is immortal in art.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
112. “The greater the man’s soul, the deeper he loves.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
113. “All sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of Experience, the mother of all Knowledge.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
Inspiring Leonardo Da Vinci Quotes
114. “A diamond is just a lump of coal that stuck to its job.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
115. “The function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
116. “The desire to know is natural to good men.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
117. “Vows begin when hope dies.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
118. “Therefore, O students, study mathematics and do not build without foundations.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
119. “The smallest feline is a masterpiece.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
120. “Vitality and beauty are gifts of Nature for those who live according to its laws.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
121. “He who walks straight rarely falls.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
122. “The discovery of a good wine is increasingly better for mankind than the discovery of a new star.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
123. “Every obstacle yields to stern resolve.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
124. “Such is the supreme folly of man that he labors so as to labor no more.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
125. “Medicine is the restoration of discordant elements; sickness is the discord of the elements infused into the living body.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
Short Leonardo Da Vinci Quotes
126. “Life well spent is long.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
127. “Depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
128. “He turns not back who is bound to a star.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
129. “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).
130. “Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
131. “He who does not understand the supreme certainty of mathematics is wallowing in confusion.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
132. “It is an acknowledged fact that we perceive errors in the work of others more readily than in our own.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
133. “Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
134. “Experiment is the sole interpreter of the artifices of Nature.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
135. “I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
136. “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).
137. “Envy wounds with false accusations, that is with detraction, a thing which scares virtue.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
138. “If you do not rest on the good foundation of nature, you will labor with little honor and less profit.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
139. “Lust is the cause of generation.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
140. “If you call painting dumb poetry, the painter may call poetry blind painting.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
141. “Instrumental or mechanical science is the noblest and above all others, the most useful.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
142. “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).
143. “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).
144. “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).
145. “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).
146. “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).
147. “Inequality is the cause of all local movements.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
148. “The sun gives spirit and life to the plants and the earth nourishes them with moisture.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
149. “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).
150. “Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
151. “Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience.” ~ (Leonardo da Vinci).
You Might Like
- Jim Rohn Quotes
- Sean Connery Quotes
- Eartha Kitt Quotes
- Lou Holtz Quotes
- Jack Ma Quotes
- Tim Ferriss Quotes
- Dale Carnegie Quotes
- Eckhart Tolle Quotes
- Tony Hsieh Quotes
- Peter Lynch Quotes
Short Biography of Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci, a multifaceted Italian genius of the High Renaissance, excelled as a painter, engineer, and scientist among other roles.
Celebrated initially for his paintings, his profound impact also stems from his detailed notebooks covering topics from anatomy to botany.
Born in Vinci around 1452, Leonardo’s career flourished in Florence, Milan, and later France, under the patronage of Francis I until his death in 1519.
| Full Name | Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci |
| Born | 15 April 1452 (possibly Anchiano), Vinci, Republic of Florence |
| Died | 2 May 1519 (aged 67) Clos Lucé, Amboise, Kingdom of France |
| Resting place | Château d’Amboise |
| Education | Studio of Andrea del Verrocchio |
| Years active | c. 1470–1519 |
| Known for | Painting, Drawing, Engineering, Anatomical Studies, Hydrology, Botany, Optics, Geology |
| Notable work | Virgin of the Rocks (c. 1483–1493); Lady with an Ermine (c. 1489–1491); The Vitruvian Man (c. 1490); The Last Supper (c. 1495–1498); Mona Lisa (c. 1503–1516) |
| Movement | High Renaissance |
| Family | Da Vinci family |
Recognized as one of the greatest painters, his works, including the iconic Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, continue to influence and captivate.
In 2017, his painting Salvator Mundi sold for a record $450.3 million.
Quick Facts about Leonardo da Vinci
- Leonardo da Vinci was known as the Renaissance Man due to his broad achievements in both the arts and sciences.
- He painted iconic artworks like Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.
- Leonardo was trained initially as a musician on the lyre.
- He was ambidextrous, adept at using both his right and left hands.
- He discovered why the sky appears blue.
- Besides being a celebrated painter, Leonardo was also a mathematician, scientist, and engineer among other roles.
- He was almost executed on charges of sodomy, which was a capital offense in 15th-century Florence.
- Leonardo had a total of 12 siblings.
- His painting Mona Lisa is also known by another name, La Gioconda.
- He made groundbreaking strides as an inventor, creating designs for machines like the flying machine and the self-propelled cart.
- Leonardo’s curiosity extended into multiple fields, making him a pivotal figure in various scientific and artistic disciplines.
- The Last Supper is housed not in a museum, but in a monastery’s dining hall in Milan.
- Leonardo had a profound impact on his mentor, Andrea del Verrocchio, to the extent that after seeing Leonardo’s painting, Verrocchio vowed never to paint again.
- His notebooks are filled with diagrams, sketches, and observations that offer insight into his genius.
- Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911 but recovered two years later, increasing its fame.
- An analysis by face-recognition software found Mona Lisa to be 83% happy.
- Leonardo was supported by the king of France in his later years and reportedly died in the king’s arms.
- His rivalry with Michelangelo was marked by mutual criticism of each other’s work.
- Leonardo’s interest in the human body also led him to become an accomplished anatomist.
- He was a polymath who also delved into philosophy and literature.
- His final resting place was intended to be in Amboise, France, though his original grave was lost during the French Revolution.
- A 72-page illustrated manuscript by Leonardo, the Codex Leicester, was bought by Bill Gates for $40 million.
- Leonardo was prolific but left many paintings and inventions unfinished.
- He expressed a wish to be buried in France, and his bones were believed to have been rediscovered there in the 19th century.
- Actor Leonardo DiCaprio was named after him because his mother felt her unborn son kick while she was viewing a da Vinci painting.
- The value of Mona Lisa was assessed at $100 million in 1962, which is approximately $830 million today considering inflation.
- He frequently purchased caged animals only to release them.
- Leonardo began his apprenticeship in art at an early age and was recognized as a master by the age of 20.
- His thoughts and inventions were recorded in mirrored Italian writing in his notebooks.
- Leonardo da Vinci died of a stroke on May 2, 1519, at the age of 67, continuing his scientific studies until the end.
Top Questions about Leonardo da Vinci
A: Leonardo da Vinci was a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect.
A: Leonardo’s most renowned paintings include the “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper.”
A: Leonardo spent his last three years in France, invited by Francis I, where he died in 1519.
A: In 2017, the painting “Salvator Mundi,” attributed in whole or part to Leonardo, sold at auction for $450.3 million, making it the most expensive painting ever sold at public auction.
A: Leonardo conceptualized flying machines and armored fighting vehicles, which were not feasible during his lifetime due to the infancy of modern scientific approaches.
A: Leonardo began his apprenticeship with Verrocchio at around the age of 14.
A: Leonardo contributed to the painting “The Baptism of Christ,” where he painted the young angel holding Jesus’s robe with such skill that it surpassed his master’s ability.
A: Leonardo painted a terrifying monster spitting fire on the shield, which was so frightening that his father bought a different shield for the peasant and sold Leonardo’s to an art dealer.
A: Leonardo’s earliest known dated work from 1473 is a pen-and-ink drawing depicting the Arno valley.
A: Beyond painting, Leonardo made significant discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, hydrodynamics, geology, optics, and tribology, although he did not publish his findings, thus having little direct influence on subsequent science.
