Leonardo Da Vinci

Many are they who have a taste and love for drawing, but no talent; and this will be discernible in boys who are not diligent and never finish their drawings with shading.

The length of a man's outspread arms is equal to his height.

But to me all sciences seem vain and full of error that are not born of experience, mother of all certainty, and do not terminate in an actual experience.

once you have tasted the taste of sky, you will forever look up

Thou, O God, dost sell us all good things at the price of labor.

The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.

A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.

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

Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.

It's easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.

Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.

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

Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

Demetrius was wont to say that there was no difference between the words and speech of the unskilled and ignorant and the sounds and rumblings caused by the stomach being full of superfluous wind. This he said, not without reason, for, as he held, it did not in the least matter from what part of them the voice emanated, whether from the lower parts or the mouth, since the one and the other were of equal worth and importance.

Motion is created by the destruction of balance.

An arch consists of two weaknesses which, leaning one against the other, make a strength.

Whoever does not respect life, does not deserve it.

When you are painting you should take a flat mirror and often look at your work within it, and it will then be seen in reverse, and will appear to be by the hand of some other master, and you will be better able to judge of its faults than in any other way.

Be a mirror, absorb everything around you and still remain the same