Leonardo da Vinci: On the Mastery of Oneself

“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”
― Leonardo da Vinci

One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.

The height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. And this law is the expression of eternal justice

It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things. Knowing is not enough — we must apply.

Being willing is not enough — we must do.