“How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci” – Michael J.Gelb

Throughout his life he proudly referred to himself as uomo senza lettere (“man without letters”) and discepolo della esperienza (“disciple of experience”).

Leonardo championed originality and independence of thought. He urged, “No one should imitate the manner of another, for he would then deserve to be called a grandson of nature, not her son.”

He viewed the work of others as “experience by proxy” to be studied carefully and critically and to be tested through his own experience.

…Leonardo reflected sadly that the average human “looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance, and talks without thinking.”