“The water you touch in a river is the last of that which has passed, and the first of that which is coming. Thus it is with time present.”

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

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Leonardo Da Vinci 363
Italian Renaissance polymath 1452–1519

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“Thus a material which cannot last even a little while above ground, endures for a long time when covered with moisture.”

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