Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter, inventor, engineer, and scientist popularly known today for painting timeless pieces like the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.Beyond art, he also filled thousands of pages of notebooks with sketches, studies of the human body, flying machines, and reflections on life.It is from these collections that words of wisdom often surface.Long before phones, newspapers or the internet, thinkers were asking how we tell what is real from what only sounds real. Some answered with long books, and others with a single line that stays in the mind.One such line comes from Leonardo da Vinci, let’s find out what he meant to say
Quote of the day
Beyond a doubt, truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness
Leonardo da Vinci
What does the quote mean?
Leonardo da Vinci explains a profound idea with a real-life example, saying the comparison is simple. Light doesn’t need to fight darkness. When light arrives, darkness goes away on its own. Darkness is only the absence of light. In the same way, all the lies can look powerful for a while, but it depends on things staying hidden. Once the truth actually comes out, the lie loses its hold.The words after the quote in his notebook add to this. He says truth is excellent in itself, even when it talks about small and humble things, and he calls it food for sharp minds. For him, truth was not just a moral rule. It was something that thinking people need to stay healthy.The quote has been attributed to Leonardo da Vinci according to the Brainy quote, and is found in The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, in the English edition put together by Jean Paul Richter.Because Leonardo wrote in Italian, the words are a translation. Over the years, many translations of his notebooks have surfaced, so the words can be different, but the meaning has hardly aged.
How are his words relevant today?
We live in an age where false news can travel around the world in minutes. It is tempting to think that lies can often help us win and go viral and help earn good numbers, but you don’t have to shout louder than a lie for it to be true.Instead, it is important to check the source, ask for evidence, and wait before sharing, and here da Vinci’s words remind us that truth usually needs patience.
