Italian artist, architect, musician, and scientist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was born on this day. His accomplishments were many and varied, astounding for the Renaissance era he helped pioneer.

His Last Supper (1495) and Mona Lisa (1504) are among the most popular paintings of all time.

"All our knowledge has its origins in perceptions," he said.  Da Vinci kept notebooks, the Codex Leicester, to observe and analyze the world around him.  His mechanical inventiveness was centuries ahead of his time.

"Do you know that our soul is composed of harmony?" he asked.

With a hunger for knowledge, Da Vinci designed bridges and aqueducts, flying machines, parachutes, and submarines. The remarkable genius sketched underwater breathing devices, cranes, pulley systems, and even contact lenses.

Remarkably, Da Vinci proposed that the earth rotated around the sun and the moon's light was reflected sunlight. He created the first textbook of human anatomy.

A genius, a visionary, his spirit working with the hand... and heart... to create art.

More DA VINCI Quotations

Let your spirit, hands, and heart work together to create art.