734 Quotes by Leonardo da Vinci

An artist who lacks the power of self-criticism accomplishes but little. It is good if your work stands higher than your own opinion of it; bad if it is on the same level. But it is a great disaster if your work stands lower than your judgment of it.

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.

In fact, whatever exists in the universe, in essence, in appearance, in the imagination, the painter has first in his mind and then in his hands ... it lies in his power to create them . . .

Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitudes.

People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life.

To be a winner you must want to win but must know of the chance of losing and must not fear of it.

Lust is the cause of generation Appetite is the support of life Fear or timidity is the prolongation of life, and Fraud the preservation of its instruments.

Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world.

Abbreviators do harm to knowledge and to love.