The Notebooks of Leonardo DaVinci

Those who are in love with practice without knowledge are like the sailor who gets into a ship without rudder or compass and who never can be certain whether he is going

We know very well that errors are better recognised in the works of others than in our own; and that often, while reproving little faults in others, you may ignore great ones in yourself

The sorest misfortune is when your views are in advance of your work.

The water you touch in a river is the last of that which has passed, and the first of that which is coming. Thus it is with time present.

Life if well spent, is long.

The sorest misfortune is when your views are in advance of your work.

The name of man differs in different countries, but his form is never changed but by death.

And if you call painting dumb poetry, the painter may call poetry blind painting.

You know that you cannot invent animals without limbs, each of which, in itself, must resemble those of some other animal.

Of grotesque faces I need say nothing, because they are kept in mind without difficulty.

noses are of 10 types: straight, bulbous, hollow, prominent above or below the middle, aquiline, regular, flat, round or pointed.