Vitality and beauty are gifts of Nature for those who live according to its laws.
Leonardo Da VinciRead
And you who wish to represent by words the form of man and all the aspects of his membrification, relinquish that idea. For the more minutely you describe the more you will confine the mind of the reader, and the more you will keep him from the knowledge of the thing described. And so it is necessary to draw and to describe.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Describing subjects in detail can limit understanding and imagination.
In this quote, Leonardo Da Vinci suggests that focusing too heavily on the detailed description of a subject can restrict the reader's ability to fully comprehend or appreciate it. Instead, he advocates for a balance between drawing and describing, allowing the viewer's imagination to expand beyond the confines of words. This highlights the importance of visual representation in understanding complex forms and ideas.
Themes
ArtDescriptionImaginationUnderstandingRepresentation
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about artistic representation, one could say, 'As Leonardo Da Vinci famously put it...'
More from Leonardo Da Vinci
All quotes →Small rooms or dwellings set the mind in the right path, large ones cause it to go astray.
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Patience serves us against insults precisely as clothes do against the cold. For if you multiply your garments as the cold increases, that cold cannot hurt you; in the same way increase your patience under great offenses, and they cannot hurt your feelings.
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The smallest feline is a masterpiece.
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For, verily, great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you little know it, you will be able to love it only little or not at all.
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It is a far worthier thing to read by the light of experience than to adorn oneself with the labors of others.
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