Human beings will be seen who will not understand each other’s speech; that is, a German with a Turk.
Fathers will be seen giving their daughters into the power of man and giving up all their former care in guarding them. (When Girls are married.)
Men will come out their graves turned into flying creatures; and they will attack other men, taking their food from their very hand or table. (As Flies.)
Many will there be who, flaying their mother, will tear the skin from her back. (Husbandmen tilling the Earth.)
Happy will they be who lend ear to the words of the Dead. (Who read good works and obey them.)
Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.