# Leonardo da Vinci's most beautiful lines (from his notebooks)

Thoughts Leonardo wrote in his own hand in his notebooks, each with the codex it comes from. The famous line about flight («Once you have tasted flight…») is left out: it isn't in his writings.

- 5 votes · 12 items
- Aug 29, 2021 · claudia_versefan
- https://even.best/en/l/1791/leonardo-da-vinci-s-most-beautiful-lines-from-his-notebooks

## Top 12

1. **The water you touch in a river is the last of what has passed and the first of what is coming. So it is with the present.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — From his notes on water and time.
2. **Truth alone was the daughter of time.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Codex M, 58.
3. **Whoever argues by citing authority uses not his intellect but rather his memory.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Codex Atlanticus, 76.
4. **Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Forster Codex III.
5. **Wisdom is the daughter of experience.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Forster Codex III.
6. **He who thinks little errs much.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Codex H, 119.
7. **Motion is the cause of all life.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Codex Trivulzianus, 36.
8. **Reprove your friend in private and praise him in public.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Codex H, 16.
9. **He who walks well seldom falls.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Codex Atlanticus.
10. **Wild is he who saves himself.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Codex Trivulzianus, f. 1v: a pun on «salvatico» (wild) and «salvarsi» (to save oneself).
11. **As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well used brings happy death.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Codex Trivulzianus, f. 27r.
12. **O students, study mathematics, and do not build without foundations.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — From his writings on science.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.