Leonardo da Vinci

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

God sells us all things at the price of labor.

Quando ouvimos os sinos, ouvimos aquilo que já trazemos em nós mesmos como modelo. Sou da opinião que não se deverá desprezar aquele que olhar atentamente para as manchas da parede, para os carvões sobre a grelha, para as nuvens, ou para a correnteza da água, descobrindo, assim, coisas maravilhosas. O génio do pintor há-de se apossar de todas essas coisas para criar composições diversas: luta de homens e de animais, paisagens, monstros, demónios e outras coisas fantásticas. Tudo, enfim, servirá para engrandecer o artista.

They will say that I, having no literary skill, cannot properly express that which I desire to treat of, but they do not know that my subjects are to be dealt with by experience rather than by words. And [experience] has been the mistress of those who wrote well. And so, as mistress, I will cite her in all cases. Though I may not, like them, be able to quote other authors, I shall rely on that which is much greater and more worthy: on experience, the mistress of their masters.

Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.

art is never finished, only abandoned

Painting is mute poetry, and poetry is blind painting

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

I abhor the supreme folly of those who blame the disciples of nature in defiance of those masters who were themselves her pupils

What is fair in men, passes away, but not so in art

He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.

One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.

The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

All sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of Experience, the mother of all Knowledge.

Reprove your friend in secret and praise him in public.

Nothing should be so greatly feared as empty fame.

As iron rusts when not used, and water gets foul from standing or turns to ice when exposed to cold, so the intellect degenerates without exercise.-Leonard Da Vinci