Quotes by Polymaths - Page 6

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.
Leonardo da Vinci
As iron rusts when not used, and water gets foul from standing or turns to ice when exposed to cold, so the intellect degenerates without exercise.-Leonard Da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
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.
Leonardo da Vinci
You may delay, but time will not.
Benjamin Franklin
That which can be lost cannot be deemed riches. Virtue is our true wealth and the true reward of its possessor; it cannot be lost, it never deserts us until life leaves us. Hold property and external riches with fear; they often leave their possessor scorned and mocked at for having lost them.
Leonardo da Vinci
Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that.
Benjamin Franklin
Great hopes make everything great possible.
Benjamin Franklin
If the painter wishes to see beauties that charm him, it lies in his power to create them, and if he wishes to see monstrosities that are frightful, ridiculous, or truly pitiable, he is lord and God thereof.
Leonardo da Vinci
Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose
Leonardo da Vinci
A Swedish minister having assembled the chiefs of the Susquehanna Indians, made a sermon to them, acquainting them with the principal historical facts on which our religion is founded — such as the fall of our first parents by eating an apple, the coming of Christ to repair the mischief, his miracles and suffering, etc. When he had finished an Indian orator stood up to thank him.‘What you have told us,’ says he, ‘is all very good. It is indeed bad to eat apples. It is better to make them all into cider. We are much obliged by your kindness in coming so far to tell us those things which you have heard from your mothers. In return, I will tell you some of those we have heard from ours.‘In the beginning, our fathers had only the flesh of animals to subsist on, and if their hunting was unsuccessful they were starving. Two of our young hunters, having killed a deer, made a fire in the woods to boil some parts of it. When they were about to satisfy their hunger, they beheld a beautiful young woman descend from the clouds and seat herself on that hill which you see yonder among the Blue Mountains.‘They said to each other, “It is a spirit that perhaps has smelt our broiling venison and wishes to eat of it; let us offer some to her.” They presented her with the tongue; she was pleased with the taste of it and said: “Your kindness shall be rewarded; come to this place after thirteen moons, and you will find something that will be of great benefit in nourishing you and your children to the latest generations.” They did so, and to their surprise found plants they had never seen before, but which from that ancient time have been constantly cultivated among us to our great advantage. Where her right hand had touched the ground they found maize; where her left had touched it they found kidney-beans; and where her backside had sat on it they found tobacco.’The good missionary, disgusted with this idle tale, said: ‘What I delivered to you were sacred truths; but what you tell me is mere fable, fiction, and falsehood.’The Indian, offended, replied: ‘My brother, it seems your friends have not done you justice in your education; they have not well instructed you in the rules of common civility. You saw that we, who understand and practise those rules, believed all your stories; why do you refuse to believe ours?
Benjamin Franklin
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
Leonardo da Vinci
The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality: that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality nothing will do, and with them everything.
Benjamin Franklin
You will find the key to success under the alarm clock.
Benjamin Franklin
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.
Leonardo da Vinci
The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.
Benjamin Franklin
The acquisition of knowledge is always of use to the intellect, because it may thus drive out useless things and retain the good. For nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known.
Leonardo da Vinci
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
Benjamin Franklin
The knowledge of all things is possible
Leonardo da Vinci
How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts!
Benjamin Franklin
It's better to swim in the sea belowThan to swing in the air and feed the crow,Says jolly Ned Teach of Bristol.
Benjamin Franklin
Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.
Leonardo da Vinci
That bodies should be lent us, while they can afford us pleasure, assist us in acquiring knowledge, or doing good to our fellow creatures, is a kind and benevolent act of God - when they become unfit for these purposes and afford us pain instead of pleasure-instead of an aid, become an encumbrance and answer none of the intentions for which they were given, it is equally kind and benevolent that a way is provided by which we may get rid of them. Death is that way.
Benjamin Franklin
Fear not death for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal.
Benjamin Franklin
We carry within us the wonders we seek without us.
Thomas Browne
I am the happiest man alive. I have that in me that can convert poverty to riches, adversity to prosperity, and I am more invulnerable than Archilles; Fortune hath not one place to hit me.
Thomas Browne
The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. Your have to catch up with it yourself.
Benjamin Franklin
Ohne Gedankenfreiheit gibt es keine Weisheit. Und ohne Redefreiheit keine öffentliche Freiheit.
Benjamin Franklin
Vessels large may venture more, But little boats should keep near shore.
Benjamin Franklin
Tis easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.
Benjamin Franklin
The best way to see Faith is to shut the eye of Reason.
Benjamin Franklin
Wisdom is the daughter of experience
Leonardo da Vinci
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Benjamin Franklin
Realize that everything connects to everything else.
Leonardo da Vinci
If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.
Benjamin Franklin
Lost Time is never found again.
Benjamin Franklin
As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.
Leonardo da Vinci
Hide not your talents, they for use were made,What's a sundial in the shade?
Benjamin Franklin
All the Navel therefore and conjunctive part we can suppose in Adam, was his dependency on his Maker, and the connexion he must needs have unto heaven, who was the Sonne of God. For holding no dependence on any preceding efficient but God; in the act of his production there may be conceived some connexion, and Adam to have been in a moment all Navel with his Maker. And although from his carnality and corporal existence, the conjunction seemeth no nearer than of causality and effect; yet in his immortall and diviner part he seemed to hold a nearer coherence, and an umbilicality even with God himself. And so indeed although the propriety of this part be found but in some animals, and many species there are which have no Navell at all; yet is there one link and common connexion, one general ligament, and necessary obligation of all whatever unto God. Whereby although they act themselves at distance, and seem to be at loose; yet doe they hold a continuity with their Maker. Which catenation or conserving union when ever his pleasure shall divide, let goe, or separate, they shall fall from their existence, essence, and operations; in brief, they must retire unto their primitive nothing, and shrink into that Chaos again.
Thomas Browne
Truth at last cannot be hidden. Dissimulation is of no avail. Dissimulation is to no purpose before so great a judge. Falsehood puts on a mask. Nothing is hidden under the sun.
Leonardo da Vinci
Quando ouvimos os sinos, ouvimos aquilo que já trazemos em nós mesmos como modelo. Sou da opinião que não se deverá desprezar aquele que olhar atentamente para as manchas da parede, para os carvões sobre a grelha, para as nuvens, ou para a correnteza da água, descobrindo, assim, coisas maravilhosas. O génio do pintor há-de se apossar de todas essas coisas para criar composições diversas: luta de homens e de animais, paisagens, monstros, demónios e outras coisas fantásticas. Tudo, enfim, servirá para engrandecer o artista.
Leonardo da Vinci
They will say that I, having no literary skill, cannot properly express that which I desire to treat of, but they do not know that my subjects are to be dealt with by experience rather than by words. And [experience] has been the mistress of those who wrote well. And so, as mistress, I will cite her in all cases. Though I may not, like them, be able to quote other authors, I shall rely on that which is much greater and more worthy: on experience, the mistress of their masters.
Leonardo da Vinci
Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.
Benjamin Franklin
All sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of Experience, the mother of all Knowledge.
Leonardo da Vinci
I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.
Benjamin Franklin
In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria.
Benjamin Franklin
If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.
Benjamin Franklin
Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.
Benjamin Franklin
Were I a Roman Catholic, perhaps I should on this occasion vow to build a chapel to some saint, but as I am not, if I were to vow at all, it should be to build a light-house.[Letter to his wife, 17 July 1757, after narrowly avoiding a shipwreck; often misquoted as "Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."]
Benjamin Franklin
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Benjamin Franklin
Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.
Benjamin Franklin
Well done is better than well said.
Benjamin Franklin
He that can have patience can have what he will.
Benjamin Franklin
A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned
Benjamin Franklin
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
Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.
Leonardo da Vinci
Our life is made by the death of others.
Leonardo da Vinci
All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions
Leonardo da Vinci
Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five.
Benjamin Franklin