quote · Words worth keeping
Why does not the weight remain in its place? It does not remain because it has no resistance. And whither will it tend? It will tend to the centre of the earth. And why not along other lines? Because the weight which meets with no resistance will descend by the shortest way to the lowest depth, and the lowest depth is the centre of the earth. And how does a weight find the centre of the earth with such directness? Because it does not proceed at random, wandering by diverse courses.
Why does not the weight remain in its place? It does not remain because it has no resistance. And whither will it tend? It will tend to the centre of the earth. And why not along other lines? Because the weight which meets with no resistance will descend by the shortest way to the lowest depth, and the lowest depth is the centre of the earth. And how does a weight find the centre of the earth with such directness? Because it does not proceed at random, wandering by diverse courses.
Approximate author period: c. 1486 AD · medieval
Meaning not yet available
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- Author or tradition
- Leonardo da Vinci
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1486 AD · medieval
author lifetime midpoint (1452–1519); not quotation composition date
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- Thoughts on Art and Life (1906 English edition) (1906 AD)
Thoughts on Science, complete printed unit 82; Maurice Baring translation; Boston: The Merrymount Press,1906
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
The voice behind the words.
Represented by the complete source-numbered selections in Thoughts on Art and Life, Maurice Baring’s1906English translation, edited by Lewis Einstein. The catalogue records1452–1519; the historical collection is a selection from notebooks, not a continuous book composed by Leonardo or independent authentication of every attributed passage.
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