“Science, knowledge of the things that are possible present and past; prescience, knowledge of the things which may come to pass.”

The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (1938), I Philosophy
Variant: 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.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Science, knowledge of the things that are possible present and past; prescience, knowledge of the things which may come…" by Leonardo Da Vinci?
Leonardo Da Vinci photo
Leonardo Da Vinci 363
Italian Renaissance polymath 1452–1519

Related quotes

Leonardo Da Vinci photo

“The knowledge of all things is possible”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
Claude Elwood Shannon photo

“Thus we may have knowledge of the past but cannot control it; we may control the future but have no knowledge of it.”

Claude Elwood Shannon (1916–2001) American mathematician and information theorist

Coding theorems for a discrete source with a fidelity criterion. IRE International Convention Records, volume 7, pp. 142--163, 1959.
Context: This duality can be pursued further and is related to a duality between past and future and the notions of control and knowledge. Thus we may have knowledge of the past but cannot control it; we may control the future but have no knowledge of it.

Jürgen Habermas photo
Leon R. Kass photo
Nicomachus photo

“This 'wisdom' he defined as the knowledge, or science, of the truth in real things, conceiving 'science' to be a steadfast and firm apprehension of the underlying substance. and 'real things' to be those which continue uniformly and the same in the universe and never depart even briefly from their existence; these real things would be things immaterial”

Nicomachus (60–120) Ancient Greek mathematician

Commentary (p.92): Nichomacus is an idealist. He states his position in a way that recalls Plato's distinction between "that which ever exists, having no becoming" and "that which is ever becoming, never existent,"... On the one hand there are "the real things... which exist forever changeless and in the same way in the cosmos, never departing from their existence even for a brief moment," and on the other "the original eternal matter and substance" which was entirely "subject to deviation and change."
Nicomachus of Gerasa: Introduction to Arithmetic (1926)
Context: The ancients, who under the leadership of Pythagoras first made science systematic, defined philosophy as the love of wisdom... [Οἱ παλαιοὶ καὶ πρώτοι μεθοδεύσαντες ἐπιστήμην κατάρξαντος Πυθαγόρου ὡρίζοντο φιλοσοφίαν εἶναι φιλίαν σοφίας... ] This 'wisdom' he defined as the knowledge, or science, of the truth in real things, conceiving 'science' to be a steadfast and firm apprehension of the underlying substance. and 'real things' to be those which continue uniformly and the same in the universe and never depart even briefly from their existence; these real things would be things immaterial...<!--p.181

Lucretius photo

“So far as it goes, a small thing may give an analogy of great things, and show the tracks of knowledge.”
Dum taxat, rerum magnarum parva potest res exemplare dare et vestigia notitiai.

Lucretius (-94–-55 BC) Roman poet and philosopher

Dum taxat, rerum magnarum parva potest res
exemplare dare et vestigia notitiae.
Book II, lines 123–124 (tr. Rouse)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“Knowledge is a most peculiar affair, especially for a warrior. Knowledge for a warrior is something that comes at once, engulfs him, and passes on.”

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from "Tales of Power" (Chapter 10)

Jacques Maritain photo

“The philosopher says that God's knowledge is the measure of things, and that things are the measure of man's knowledge.”

Jacques Maritain (1882–1973) French philosopher

Theonas: Conversations of a Sage (1921). Sheed & Ward, 1933, p. 77.

Robert Grosseteste photo
Bertrand Russell photo

“Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

1940s, A History of Western Philosophy (1945)

Related topics