Thoughts, Quotes & Proverbs by Leonardo da Vinci

1. Nothing should be so greatly feared as empty fame.
2. This empty fame issues from vices.
3. A broken vase of clay can be remodelled, but this is no longer possible when it has been baked.
4. The vow is born when hope dies.
5. The beautiful is not always the good. And the fine talkers labour under this error without any reason.
6. He who wishes to grow rich in a day will be hanged in a year.
7. The memory of benefits is a frail defence against ingratitude.
8. Reprove your friend in secret and praise him in public.
9. He who fears dangers will not perish by them.
10. The evil which does me no harm is like the good which in no wise avails me.
11. He who offends others is not himself secure.
12. Be not false about the past.
13. Folly is the shield of lies, just as unreadiness is the defence of poverty.
14. Where there is liberty, there is no rule.
15. Here is a thing which the more it is heeded the more it is spurned,—advice.
16. It is ill to praise, and worse to blame, the thing which you do not understand.
17. On Mount Etna the words freeze in your mouth and you make ice of them.
18. Threats are the only weapons of the threatened man.
19. Ask advice of him who governs himself well.
20. Justice needs power, intelligence and will, and is like the Queen Bee.
21. Not to punish evil is equivalent to authorizing it.
22. He who takes the snake by the tail will be bitten by it.
23. The pit will fall in upon him who digs it.
24. He who does not restrain voluptuousness is in the category of the beasts.
25. You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.
26. He who thinks little errs much.
27. It is easier to contend at the first than at the last.
28. No counsel is more sincere than that given on ships which are in danger.
29. Let him who acts on the advice of the young expect loss.
30. You grow in reputation like bread in the hands of a child.
31. Cannot beauty and utility be combined—as appears in citadels and men?
32. He who is without fear often incurs great losses, and is often full of regret.
33. If you governed your body according to virtue you would not live in this world.
34. Where good fortune enters, envy lays siege to her and attacks her, and when she departs sorrow and regret remain behind.
35. When beauty exists side by side with ugliness, the one seems more powerful, owing to the presence of the other.
36. He who walks straight rarely falls.
37. O miserable race of man! of how many things you make yourself the slave for the sake of money!
38. The worst evil which can befall the artist is that his work should appear good in his own eyes.
39. To speak well of a bad man is the same as speaking ill of a good man.
40. Truth ordains that lying tongues shall be punished by the lie.
41. He who does not value life does not deserve it.
42. The beautiful works of mortals pass and do not endure.
43. Labour flies with fame almost hidden in its arm.
44. The gold in ingots is refined in the fire.
45. The shuttle says: I will continue to move until the cloth is woven.
46. Everything that is crooked is straightened.
47. Great ruin proceeds from a slight cause.
48. Fine gold is recognized when it is tested.
49. The image will correspond to the die.
50. The wall will fall on him who scrapes it.
51. Ivy lives long.
52. To the traitor, death is life, because if he makes use of others he is no longer believed.
53. When fortune comes seize her in front firmly, because behind she is bald.
54. Constancy means, not he who begins, but he who perseveres.
55. I do not yield to obstacles.
56. Every obstacle is overcome by resolve.
57. He who is chained to a star does not change.

Thoughts, Quotes & Proverbs - Leonardo da Vinci

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