Quotations

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

— Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance painter, born 1452

"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."

— Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance painter, born 1452

"Tears come from the heart and not from the brain."

— Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance painter, born 1452

"The spirit desires to remain with its body, because, without the organic instruments of that body, it can neither act, nor feel anything."

— Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance painter, born 1452

"Love shows itself more in adversity than in prosperity; as light does, which shines most where the place is darkest."

— Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance painter, born 1452

"A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light."

— Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance painter, born 1452

"If you don't like this, I'll stop writing music."

— Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer, born 1678

"All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark."

— Swami Vivekananda, Indian Hindu monk, born 1863

"Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way."

— Swami Vivekananda, Indian Hindu monk, born 1863

"She smiled at me, and I felt a sudden burning tenderness for this creature so like fruit and roses. I desired her like blue water at dawn."

— Renee Vivien, English-French poet, born 1877

"What we know of the world comes to us primarily through vision. Our eyes, however, are sensitive only to that segment of the spectrum between red and violet; the remaining 95 percent of all existing light (cosmic, infrared, ultraviolet, gammas, and x-rays) we cannot see. This means that we only perceive 5 percent of the “real” world."

— Amos Vogel, Film scholar, born April 18, 1921

"Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats."

— Voltaire, French Enlightenment writer, born 1694

"The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease."

— Voltaire, French Enlightenment writer, born 1694

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."

— Voltaire, French Enlightenment writer, born 1694