Leonardo's Notebooks Quotes

"The idle fluttering moth, not contented with its power to fly wherever it pleased through the air, was enthralled by the seductive flame of the candle and resolved to fly into it. But its joyous movement was the occasion of instant mourning. For in the said flame its delicate wings were consumed, and the wretched moth, having fallen down at the foot of the candlestick all burnt, after much weeping and contrition, wiped the tears from its streaming eyes, and lifting up its face exclaimed, "False light, how many are there like me who have been miserably deceived by you in times past! Alas! If my one desire was to behold the light, ought I not to have distinguished the sun from the false glimmer of filthy tallow?"

"The fig tree, standing near to the elm, and perceiving that her boughs bore no fruit themselves, yet had the hardihood to keep away the sun from her own, unripe figs, rebuked her, saying, "O Elm, are you not ashamed to stand in front of me? Only wait until my children are fully grown and you will see where you will find yourself." But when her offspring were ripe a regiment of soldiers came to the place, and they tore off the branches of the fig tree in order to take her figs, and left her all stripped and broken. And as she thus stood maimed in all her limbs the elm questioned her saying, "O Fig tree, how much better was it to be without children than to be brought by them to so wretched a pass."

The privet, on feeling its tender branches, laden with new fruit, pricked by the sharp claws and beak of the troublesome blackbird, complained to her with pitiful reproaches, beseeching her that even if she plucked off her delicious fruit she would at any rate not deprive her of her leaves that protected her from the scorching rays of the sun, nor with her sharp claws rend away and strip bare her tender bark. But to this the blackbird replied with insolent rebuke, "Silence! rude bramble! Know you not that Nature has made you to produce these fruits for my sustenance? Cannot you see that you came into the world in order to supply me with this very food? Know you not, vile thing that you are, that next winter you will serve as sustenance and food for the fire?" To which words the tree listened patiently and not without tears.

"A nut that found itself carried by a crow to the top of a lofty campanile, having there fallen into a crevice and so escaped its deadly beak, besought the wall by that grace which God had bestowed upon it in causing it to be so exalted and great, and so rich in having bells of such beauty and of such mellow tone, that it would deign to give it succor; that insomuch as it had not been able to drop beneath its old father’s green branches and lie in the fallow earth covered by his fallen leaves the wall would not abandon it, for when it found itself in the fierce crow’s cruel beak it had vowed that if it escaped thence it would end its days in a small hole. At these words the wall, moved with compassion, was content to give it shelter in the spot where it had fallen. And within a short space of time the nut began to burst open and to put its roots in among the crevices of the stones, and push them farther apart and throw up shoots out of its hollow, and these soon rose above the top of the building; and as the twisted roots grew thicker they commenced to tear asunder the walls and force the ancient stones out of their old positions. Then the wall too late and in vain deplored the cause of its destruction, and in a short time it was torn asunder and a great part fell in ruin."

"A young tree that was growing among rocks and in a place devoid of soil, on perceiving that in the little crevices of its stony bed there was enough soil to nourish it, gave itself up to the hope of being able to reach a great height. And in fact it pushed up a tall stem and strong branches and put forth an abundance of leaves; but the wind coming suddenly upon it, it was torn up by the roots and thrown upon the ground. And as it lay there it began to reflect, saying, "O how much better had it been for me to remain a slight, slender sapling, for then the wind would have had no power over me, and I should not have been torn away from my sweet birthplace, from among these beautiful rocks, to whom I should have clung with my rough roots far better than with these which are now so torn and draggled."