xy

@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“He who can copy can do.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“Experience does not err; only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
Context: 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.

“We must doubt the certainty of everything which passes through the senses, but how much more ought we to doubt things contrary to the senses, such as the existence of God and the soul.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“Those who, in debate, appeal to their qualifications, argue from memory, not from understanding.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“Having wandered some distance among gloomy rocks, I came to the entrance of a great cavern… Two contrary emotions arose in me: fear and desire--fear of the threatening dark cavern, desire to see whether there were any marvelous things in it.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“A well-spent day brings happy sleep”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“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 (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“The worst evil which can befall the artist is that his work should appear good in his own eyes.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“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 (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
Source: Leonardo's Notebooks

“Wisdom is the daughter of experience.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
Variant: Truth was the only daughter of Time.

“Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“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 (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

Richter II p. 126 no. 837 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=A7dUhbBfmzMC&pg=PA126 <br class="br">The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), I Prolegomena and General Introduction to the Book on Painting

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

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.

“The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“The mind that engages in subjects of too great variety becomes confused and weakened.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“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.”