Vitality and beauty are gifts of Nature for those who live according to its laws.
Man and the animals are merely a passage and channel for food, a tomb for other animals, a haven for the dead, giving life by the death of others, a coffer full of corruption.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the interconnectedness of life and death within the ecosystem, emphasizing the cycle of life where living beings are both consumers and consumed.
Leonardo Da Vinci's quote reveals a profound observation about the natural world and humanity's place within it. It explains how every living being serves as a link in a larger chain of existence, where life is sustained by the death of others. This perspective challenges us to consider the ethical implications of our role as consumers and our impact on the environment, highlighting the inherent cycles of life and decay that define our ecosystem.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on sustainability, this quote can highlight the importance of understanding our consumption habits.
More from Leonardo Da Vinci
All quotes →Small rooms or dwellings set the mind in the right path, large ones cause it to go astray.
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 offenses, and they cannot hurt your feelings.
The smallest feline is a masterpiece.
For, verily, great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you little know it, you will be able to love it only little or not at all.
It is a far worthier thing to read by the light of experience than to adorn oneself with the labors of others.
Similar quotes
The people are urged to be patriotic ... by sacrificing their own children. Patriotism requires allegience to the flag, which means obedience and readiness to kill father, mother, brother, sister.
Most of us came here in chains and most of you came here to escape your chains. Your freedom was our slavery, and therein lies the bitter difference in the way we look at life.
Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other.
I was not born for one corner. The whole world is my native land.
Used to the conditions of a capitalistic environment, the average American takes it for granted that every year business makes something new and better accessible to him. Looking backward upon the years of his own life, he realizes that many implements that were totally unknown in the days of his youth and many others which at that time could be enjoyed only by a small minority are now standard equipment of almost every household.
The proper role of government is exactly what John Stuart Mill said in the middle of the 19th century in "On Liberty." The proper role of government is to prevent other people from harming an individual. Government, he said, never has any right to interfere with an individual for that individual's own good.