Leonardo da Vinci - wise sayings and quotes

1. It has long attracted my attention that people who exercise rarely sit and wait for things to happen to them. They come out and things happen.

2. He who does not value life, did not even deserve it.

3. A painter who does not doubt his ability achieves little.

4. A child conceived in the malicious debauchery of a woman, and without the desire of a husband, will be a little diligent, cowardly and stupid. A man who approaches intercourse quarrelsomely and uncomfortably makes impulsive and quarrelsome children. If intercourse is performed with great love and great desire of the participants, then the child will be very smart and resourceful and lively and kind.

5. Just as courage endangers life, so does fear protect it.

6. Practice must always be built on good theory.

7. He who insults others does not protect himself.

8. Wisdom is the daughter of experience.

9. I love those who laugh in problems, who find new strength in difficulties, and become even braver. In such conditions, the narrow-minded give up, but those whose hearts are firm, whose conscience justifies their actions, are ready to follow their principles until death.

10. He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done.

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

12. He who walks straight, rarely falls.

13. Man is truly the king of animals, because his cruelty surpasses theirs. We live from the deaths of others. We are walking tombs!

14. Marriage is like putting your hand in a bag full of snakes with the hope that we will only pull out an eel.

15. When you touch the water in the river, what you have touched is the last of what has passed and the first of what will come. So it is with the present.

16. Just as iron rusts if not used, and water breaks down even when winter follows, so human ability is destroyed without exercise.

17. Only great people can truly love.

18. Life is a simple thing. You do some things and for the most part you fail. Some succeed, so you do more of what works. If it works really well, the others will copy you. Then you start doing something else. The trick is in doing different things.

19. Great love arises from the great knowledge of the beloved thing, and if you know it little, you will love it little, or you will not be able to love it at all.

20. I insulted God and the human race because my work did not reach the quality it was supposed to achieve.

21. A sad student is one who does not surpass his teacher.

22. Simplicity is the greatest sophistication.

23. A well-spent day makes sleep happier.

24. The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

25. Seek advice from one who rules himself well.

26. A well-spent life is long. A well-spent day makes sleep happier.

27. He who wants to get rich in one day will hang in one year.

28. You will inflict damage if you praise something, but even greater damage if you forbid something without understanding it.

29. Nothing strengthens authority like silence.

30. While I thought I was learning how to live, I was actually learning how to die.

31. Nature never violates its laws.

32. There are three kinds of people: those who see, those who see when something is pointed out to them, and those who do not see.

33. He who loves practice without theory is like a sailor who embarks on a ship without rudder and compass, so he never knows which shore he will land on.

34. Learning can never exhaust reason.

35. Knowing the past and the place on earth is the decoration and food of the human mind.

36. Where there is a lot of noise - there is no real knowledge.

37. Water is the driving force in nature.

38. It has long been clear to me that people prone to achievement do not sit back and wait for things to happen to them. They go and things happen.

39. He who sows virtues will reap honor.

40. Once you try to fly, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned to the sky, because you were up there and because you want to go back up.

41. The natural desire of good people is knowledge.

42. Whoever engages in a discussion citing various authorities does not use his intelligence - only his memory.

43. The greatest deception a person experiences from his opinions.

44. It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.

45. Tears come from the heart, not from the brain.

46. ​​There is no truth in those sciences in which mathematics is not applied.

47. The poet is far below the painter in presenting visible things, just as he is far below the musician in presenting invisible things.

48. Great love arises from the great knowledge of the beloved thing, and if you know it a little, you will love it a little, or you will not be able to love it at all.

49. Blinding ignorance deceives us. Oh! Desperate mortals, open your eyes!

Why Leonardo da Vinci left many paintings unfinished

Unconsciousness caused traumatic damage to the nerves of Leonardo da Vinci's right arm, so it could be the reason why his painting skills weakened in his late career, that is, why he left numerous paintings unfinished during the last five years of painting, including the Mona Lisa.

Although the impairment affected his ability to hold pallets and brushes with his right hand, he was able to continue teaching and drawing with his left hand. Paralysis of the right arm was previously thought to be associated with stroke, but doctors, whose work was published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, came to a different conclusion after analyzing Da Vinci's 16th-century draft.

Instead of the typical clenched fist seen in muscle spasticity after a stroke, the draft suggests an alternative diagnosis such as ulnar paralysis, commonly known as a claw, says Davide Lazzeri, one of the authors. He suggests that syncope or fainting is more likely to have occurred during which da Vinci may have suffered acute trauma to the right upper extremity, developing ulnar paralysis. The ulnar nerve runs from the shoulder to the little finger and controls almost all the internal muscles of the hands that allow fine motor movements.