Leonardo da Vinci
It was on April 15, 1452, that Leonardo was born in the town of Vinci, Republic of Florence, in what is now in Italy, the illegitimate son of a notary and a barmaid. It is from his birthplace that he is known as Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo seemed to master every subject to which he turned his attention: he was a painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer, wrote poetry and stories: the prototype Renaissance man!
His Last Supper (1495-97) and Mona Lisa (La Gioconda, 1503-06) are among the most popular paintings from the Renaissance. He and his rival Michelangelo did great service to the medical arts by accurate paintings of dissections, which were only occasionally allowed by the Church. Yet, his artistry appeared to be an afterthought, as he frequently left his works unfinished, and only about fifteen of his paintings survive. His notebooks reveal that he was centuries ahead of his time in mechanics and physic, fortifications, bridges, weapons, and river diversions to flood the enemy, which aided Italian city-states in their many wars.
Leonardo was an early evolutionist regarding fossils. Through his careful observations he noted that “if the shells had been carried by the muddy deluge they would have been mixed up, and separated from each other amidst the mud, and not in regular steps and layers — as we see them now in our time.” Leonardo reasoned that what is now dry land, where these aquatic fossils were found, must once have been covered by seawater.
He was for a short time accused of homosexuality: there is no evidence Leonardo had any sexual interest in women. As he wrote in his notebooks, “The act of procreation and anything that has any relation to it is so disgusting that human beings would soon die out if there were no pretty faces and sensuous dispositions.”
And what of his religion? It is significant that at the end of his life he felt he had much spiritual negligence to atone for. His first biographer, Giorgio Vasari, wrote in 1550:
"Finally, …feeling himself near to death, [he] asked to have himself diligently informed of the teaching of the Catholic faith, and of the good way and holy Christian religion; and then, with many moans, he confessed and was penitent; and … was pleased to take devoutly the most holy Sacrament, out of his bed. The King, who was wont often and lovingly to visit him, then came into the room; wherefore he, out of reverence … showed withal how much he had offended God and mankind in not having worked at his art as he should have done."
There was much skepticism in Renaissance Italy at the time, and Leonardo was an intellectual genius, not just an artistic genius. While there was great intellectual freedom during the Italian Renaissance, there were limits as long as the Dominicans, the “Hounds of the Lord,” were active. This semblance of a deathbed conversion, by so critical a thinker and so great a genius as Leonardo, who would have nothing to lose by professing piety all his life, can only mean that during his prime years he was a secret freethinker.
Leonardo died quietly on the 2 of May, 1519, a few weeks following his 67th birthday.
“A poet knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
“Obstacles cannot crush me; every obstacle yields to stern resolve.”
“Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.”
“Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.”
“Learning never exhausts the mind.”
“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”
“As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.”
“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”
“The human bird shall take his first flight,filling the words with amazement,all writings with his fame,and bringing eternal glory to those whose nest whence he sprang.”
“The acquisition of knowledge is always of use to the intellect, because it may thus drive out useless things and retain the good. For nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known.”
“Our life is made by the death of others.”
“While human ingenuity may devise various inventions to the same ends, it will never devise anything more beautiful, nor more simple, nor more to the purpose than nature does, because in her inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.”
“Truth at last cannot be hidden. Dissimulation is of no avail. Dissimulation is to no purpose before so great a judge. Falsehood puts on a mask. Nothing is hidden under the sun.”
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.”
“If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself or even less in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight.”
“I thought I was learning to live; I was only learning to die.”
“Water is the driving force in nature.”
“Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood.”
“I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death”
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
“The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of.”
“Those who, in debate, appeal to their qualifications, argue from memory, not from understanding.”
“What is fair in men, passes away, but not so in art”
“Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel.”
“Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses- especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
“Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.”
“He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss.”
“Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.”
“The knowledge of all things is possible”
“Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world.”
“All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions”
“Experience does not err; only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power.”
“Der Augenblick ist zeitlos.”
“As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.”
“He who thinks little errs much…”
“He who does not oppose evil......commands it to be done.”
“Hari yang dilewatkan dengan baik, akan menghasilkan tidur yang nyenyak.”
“All sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of Experience, the mother of all Knowledge.”
“Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.”
“The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.”
“Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!”
“He who wishes to be rich within a day, will be hanged within a year.”
“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.”
“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.”
“As you cannot do what you want,Want what you can do”
“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.”
“I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.”
“God sells us all things at the price of labor.”
“The function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue.”
“Noi tutti siamo esiliatientro lo cornici di uno strano quadro.Chi sa questo, viva da grande,Gli altri sono insetti.”