Quote collection
583 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"O time, swift robber of all created things, how many kings, how many nations hast thou undone, and how many changes of states and of various events have happened since the wondrous forms of this fish perished here in this cavernous and winding recess. Now destroyed by time thou liest patiently in this confined space with bones stripped and bare; serving as a support and prop for the superimposed mountain."
"The water which rises in the mountains is the blood which keeps the mountain in life."
"The Medici created and destroyed me."
"When you are painting you should take a flat mirror and often look at your work within it, and it will then be seen in reverse, and will appear to be by the hand of some other master, and you will be better able to judge of its faults than in any other way."
"Oh! how foul a thing, that we should see the tongue of one animal in the guts of another."
"Nature has placed in the front part of man, as he moves, all those parts which when struck cause him to feel pain; and this is felt in the joints of the legs, the forehead and the nose, and has been so devised for the preservation of man, because if such pain were not felt in these limbs they would be destroyed by the many blows they receive."
"The spirit desires to remain with its body, because, without the organic instruments of that body, it can neither act, nor feel anything."
"Sculptured figures which appear in motion, will, in their standing position, actually look as if they were falling forward."
"The eye which turns from a white object in the light of the sun and goes into a less fully lighted place will see everything as dark."
"Many will think they may reasonably blame me by alleging that my proofs are opposed to the authority of certain men held in the highest reverence by their inexperienced judgments; not considering that my works are the issue of pure and simple experience."
"Demetrius was wont to say that there was no difference between the words and speech of the unskilled and ignorant and the sounds and rumblings caused by the stomach being full of superfluous wind. This he said, not without reason, for, as he held, it did not in the least matter from what part of them the voice emanated, whether from the lower parts or the mouth, since the one and the other were of equal worth and importance."
"I am not to blame for putting forward, in the course of my work on science, any general rule derived from a previous conclusion."
"Perspective is nothing more than a rational demonstration applied to the consideration of how objects in front of the eye transmit their image to it, by means of a pyramid of lines. The Pyramid is the name I apply to the lines which, starting from the surface and edges of each object, converge from a distance and meet in a single point."
"Here is a thing which the more you fear and avoid it the nearer you approach to it, and this is misery; the more you flee from it the more miserable and restless you will become."
"A wave is never found alone, but is mingled with as many other waves as there are uneven places in the object where the said wave is produced."
"Of the four elements water is the second in weight and the second in respect of mobility. It is never at rest until it unites with the sea."
"Fire is to represent truth because it destroys all sophistry and lies; and the mask is for lying and falsehood which conceal truth."
"All the elements will be seen mixed together in a great whirling mass, now borne towards the centre of the world, now towards the sky; and now furiously rushing from the South towards the frozen North, and sometimes from the East towards the West, and then again from this hemisphere to the other."
"Science is the captain, and practice the soldiers."
"Wherever good fortune enters, envy lays siege to the place and attacks it; and when it departs, sorrow and repentance remain behind."