“ To speak well of a base man is much the same as speaking ill of a good man. ”
Leonardo da Vinci, The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (1478 – 1519). copy citation
| Author | Leonardo da Vinci |
|---|---|
| Source | The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci |
| Topic | good |
| Date | 1478 – 1519 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Jean Paul Richter in 1888 |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html |
Context
“Patience serves us against insults precisely as clothes do against the cold. For if you multiply your garments as the cold increases, that cold cannot hurt you; in the same way increase your patience under great offences, and they cannot hurt your feelings.
1196.
To speak well of a base man is much the same as speaking ill of a good man.
1197.
Envy wounds with false accusations, that is with detraction, a thing which scares virtue.
1198.
We are deceived by promises and time disappoints us ...
[Footnote 2: The rest of this passage may be rendered in various ways, but none of them give a satisfactory meaning.]”
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