Leonardo Da Vinci's wisdom

[songwriter]

Well, most of the people qualify him as "The Greatest Genius Ever".
What about his thoughts... I'm trying to find quotes of him, to know about his wisdom.

Now this post is gonna be so long that I don't think many read it all, but here I go, I may write some things in red

"As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death."

"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."

I think that was a great one

"Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in."
Absolutely agree... LOL

"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand."

Like Dylan said... don't critize what you can't understand...

"Intellectual passion dries out sensuality."

He surely had a great experience with that so he maybe right...

"Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind"

"Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason"

mmm... I don't understand that much (I won't censore it then ). Well... when I was in the studio I was singing like I planned and it was good until I sang freely or so not knowing why... and it was right and now I know why...
But I still don't understand this quote...

"Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses."

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory."

"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."

I knew The Beatles did that. When they where stuck in some point or confused, they just took some coffee and went back and it went better then. It is an advice Paul McCartney gives now to musicians.
Sometimes used in business or politics too. Stop the talking for a while and then going back

"Experience does not err. Only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power"

"For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Now that's a great one too.

"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."

"Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does Nature, because in her inventions, nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous."

"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do"

This goes about the "learning and not doing"

"I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have."

Genius are always perfectionist and self-deceiving...

"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."

Purpose of life!

"In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time."

"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."

"Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it"

"Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else."

Exactly like The Beatles... lol...

"Life well spent is long."

"Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel."

mmm... no comment...

"Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active."

"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence"

"Our life is made by the death of others."

"People react to fear, not love - they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true."

Fear based people.

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"

"The art of procreation and the members employed therein are so repulsive, that if it were not for the beauty of the faces and the adornments of the actors and the pent-up impulse, nature would lose the human species."

lol

"The function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue."

LOL

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

"The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding"

"The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far below the musician in that of invisible things"

Thank you from the Musicians side.

"There shall be wings! If the accomplishment be not for me, 'tis for some other."

Delta-wings... you were right.

"Water is the driving force of all nature"

"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art."

"While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die."

"Who sows virtue reaps honor."

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

[Michael Chui]

Nice list, but...

Originally Posted by songwriter

"People react to fear, not love - they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true."

... I don't think there were Sunday Schools back in da Vinci's day.

You might find this useful:
Leonardo da Vinci - Wikiquote

[songwriter]

Originally Posted by Michael Chui

Nice list, but...



... I don't think there were Sunday Schools back in da Vinci's day.

You might find this useful:
Leonardo da Vinci - Wikiquote

Well, that "Sunday Schools" may be a not exact translation, Leonardo may talk about a similar thing that existed then...

I'll come back to the link of wikipedia... but now I'm too much Leonardized or so... I need some coffee.

[Vorhidin]

"Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason"

That means for me, that the way of being able to understand something is by experiencing it first, feeling it, not judging it. And only then proceed to analyze it if you want.

And what he says about nature, I think he means that there are underlaying rules and laws, those are the reasons, and the result of all of that, is all the life we see, the experience.

[WanderingOak]

Originally Posted by songwriter

Well, most of the people qualify him as "The Greatest Genius Ever".
What about his thoughts... I'm trying to find quotes of him, to know about his wisdom.

I've been interested in DaVinci as well for some time now. What was the source of your quotes? I preffer Tea when I hit an impasse myself, but it's the same principle.

[gberardi]

Originally Posted by songwriter

"Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in."
Absolutely agree... LOL

I think that is a big reason why Photoreading works as well as it does. Even if I never go through the photoreading system for another book, having a clear purpose while reading (or doing anything) will definitely aid in comprehension and memory.

[Akashic_Librarian]

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

That to me has an air of Matrix to it. Now obviously Leonardo Da Vinici was well before the concept of The Matrix as a movie. But the idea of a fake world, a DREAM world, has been around since Plato's Allegory of the Cave (Allegory of the Cave

This is incredible to imagine a man can comprehend something beyond his own world, when most people at the time could barely comprehend their own existance!

What is the quote telling us though?

I think that many quotes of Da Vinci's are Rhetorical questions. But this one, it seems to me, and this is only my opinion, that Da Vinci is asking whom ever should read the quote, or hear him speak, genuinely asking, Why?

Because he himself could not understand why, he searched all his life to find out why, or in some cases why not.

This is why I honour Da Vinci. May yoursoul rest in peace, and may you find the answers you searched for so unrelentlessly in life.

[Michael Chui]

Originally Posted by Akashic_Librarian

That to me has an air of Matrix to it.

The Matrix transmedia world is probably my favorite set of films yet. It's probably the largest amalgamation of philosophy put together all at once I have ever encountered, and I keep finding new stuff. The only thing it doesn't seem to give much thought to is the nature of evil, but in a way, it does by not talking about it and instead showing the scene of the Councilor talking with Neo at the engineering level.

[songwriter]

Originally Posted by WanderingOak

I've been interested in DaVinci as well for some time now. What was the source of your quotes? I preffer Tea when I hit an impasse myself, but it's the same principle.

Nothing too serious. I've yahooed "Leonardo Da Vinci"quotes. And the first two links were full of his quotations. The wikipedia page is veeery long... I'll need time to come back for more.

[songwriter]

Originally Posted by gberardi

I think that is a big reason why Photoreading works as well as it does. Even if I never go through the photoreading system for another book, having a clear purpose while reading (or doing anything) will definitely aid in comprehension and memory.

Sure, I can remind the weirdest details of some musical facts and forget about some "more important things" easily.

[songwriter]

Originally Posted by Akashic_Librarian

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

That to me has an air of Matrix to it. Now obviously Leonardo Da Vinici was well before the concept of The Matrix as a movie. But the idea of a fake world, a DREAM world, has been around since Plato's Allegory of the Cave (Allegory of the Cave

This is incredible to imagine a man can comprehend something beyond his own world, when most people at the time could barely comprehend their own existance!

What is the quote telling us though?

I think that many quotes of Da Vinci's are Rhetorical questions. But this one, it seems to me, and this is only my opinion, that Da Vinci is asking whom ever should read the quote, or hear him speak, genuinely asking, Why?

Because he himself could not understand why, he searched all his life to find out why, or in some cases why not.

This is why I honour Da Vinci. May yoursoul rest in peace, and may you find the answers you searched for so unrelentlessly in life.

Maybe Lucid Dreams are kind of the answer. I don't have them, but people like Erin Pavlina remind them perfectly, just like "reality" or may I say awaken time.
That would mean that in dreams we are... more able to think clearly that in our imagination... or so... It's a very mysterious thing. The greatness of Leonardo Da Vinci is too in his humility telling about some things that he just doesn't understand or he can't accomplish (wings are the famous example).

Maybe when we use our imagination we still have our senses "open", ready to receive information and that disturbs the thing.
While sleeping we have the senses more closed, though not totally closed, you know.
It may be something like meditation.
But all I'm doing is guessing... I really don't have a clue of this.

[Mark Lapierre]

Originally Posted by songwriter

Maybe when we use our imagination we still have our senses "open", ready to receive information and that disturbs the thing.
While sleeping we have the senses more closed, though not totally closed, you know.
It may be something like meditation.
But all I'm doing is guessing... I really don't have a clue of this.

It's a reasonable theory. I've found that the times when my imagination is clearest, are times when I'm most calm and least distracted. At those times I could, for example, clearly imagine myself flying through wonderfully detailed canyons, over rivers, mountains and lakes, along forest paths and even beautiful futuristic crystaline cities. Unfortunately it's very rare that I reach the required level of calmness and freedom from distraction.

[Vorhidin]

Yesterday I dreamed that I was a butterfly. Suddenly I awoke and realised that I was a man. But, ¿Am I a man that was dreaming I was a butterfly? ¿Or a butterfly dreaming I am a man?
- Chuan-tzu

[songwriter]

Well... and the quote of experiencing things before analyzing them...

I imagine Leonardo with his never fulfilled dream of creating wings to fly.
He might think "I'm gonna try this", without analyzing or imagining the chances of success or so. Then it failed and then he analyzed why it failed.

Well, it really failed because he didn't have the right "stuff". The plastic that now is used in Delta wings.

I imagine now Leonardo painting... painting something and thinking... "no, that's not the thing..." or so... and wondering why... then trying other thing and being satisfied with it.

Well, artists do that many times. When you write a song you don't analyze what to write, you just write and if you don't like it you change it.

But I never thought of aplying this to "everything".

Not having a "plan", just do and then think and try again... Maybe I do it many times without noticing... "artistic temperament" or so... I don't know.

Steve talks something of doing a thing just "because you want to experience it, without analyzing the results" or so...

This may be the same thing.

Well, I'm a bad chess player... but before doing a strange and daring move I use to say... "First I play this move... and afterwards I analyze"

[Wanderer]

Davinci was truly a master upon men, seen as one of the greatest people ever born (partially because he could sing/maths, art/engineering etc. I think he proved left and right hemispheres could go together
Correct me if im wrong

[WanderingOak]

Originally Posted by Wanderer

Davinci was truly a master upon men, seen as one of the greatest people ever born (partially because he could sing/maths, art/engineering etc. I think he proved left and right hemispheres could go together
Correct me if im wrong

I think you are right. That is one of my ultimate goals as well. In fact, I have heard tell that in some cultures, that used to be pretty much the normal state of the human brain before we became 'civilized'.