Leonardo da Vinci

Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?

Indeed, nature is full of infinite reasons that have never been in experience.

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.

Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!

The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.

Experience is never wrong; only our judgments are wrong in promising themselves results which are not caused by our experiments.

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

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.

Among the great things which are to be found among us, the Being of Nothingness is the greatest.

The natural desire of good men is knowledge.

The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.

Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.

Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.

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

The soul desires to dwell with the body, because without the corporeal instruments, it can neither act nor feel.

Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.

The body, which is subject to the changes of the sky, changes with the sky.

Small rooms or dwellings discipline the mind, large ones enfeeble it.