1200

Rules of Life.

Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.

Threats alone are the weapons of the threatened man.

Wherever good fortune enters, envy lays siege to the place and attacks it; and when it departs, sorrow and repentance remain behind.

He who walks straight rarely falls.

It is bad if you praise, and worse if you reprove a thing, I mean, if you do not understand the matter well.

It is ill to praise, and worse to reprimand in matters that you do not understand.

Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.

Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
XIX: Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
. . .
On foolishness and ignorance.
1180,
1181,
1182
On riches.
1183,
1184,
1185,
1186,
1187
Rules of Life.
1188,
1189,
1190,
1191,
1192,
1193,
1194,
1195,
1196,
1197,
1198,
1199,
1200,
1201,
1202
Politics.
1203,
1204
Against Speculators.
1205,
1206
Against alchemists.
1207,
1208
Against friars.
1209
Against writers of epitomes.
1210
On spirits.
1211,
1212,
1213,
1214,
1215
Nonentity.
1216
Reflections on Nature.
1217,
1218,
1219
. . .