Quotes from Walter Isaacson

He emphasized that you should never start a company with the goal of getting rich. Your goal should be making something you believe in and making a company that will last.

I want to make this a revolution, not an effort to squeeze out profits.

One must apply the greatest artistry in three things," Alberti wrote, "walking in the city, riding a horse, and speaking, for in each of these one must try to please everyone."12 Leonardo mastered all three.

To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.

Von Neumann, by contrast, wore a three-piece suit at almost all times, including on a donkey ride down the Grand Canyon; even as a student he was so well dressed that, upon first meeting him, the mathematician David Hilbert reportedly had but one question: Who is his tailor?45

Closely related are the entries in his bestiary, a compendium of short tales of animals and moral lessons based on their traits. Bestiaries were popular among the ancients and in the Middle Ages, and the spread of printing presses meant that many were reprinted in Italy beginning in the 1470s. Leonardo had a copy of the bestiary written by Pliny the Elder and three others by medieval compilers.

The culture at Atari was a natural outgrowth of [Nolan] Bushnell's personality. But it was not simply self-indulgent. It was based on a philosophy that drew from the hippie movement and would help define Silicon Valley. At it's core were certain principles: authority should be questioned, hierarchies should be circumvented, nonconformity should be admired and creativity should be nurtured.

I learned electronics as a kid by messing around with old radios that were easy to tamper with because they were designed to be fixed.

His scientific understanding of optics thus enhanced the three-dimensional illusion of the painting.8

That was back when state governments valued education and realized the economic and social value of making it affordable.

By noting that she seems to listen but not speak, Bellincioni conveyed what makes the portrait so momentous: it captures the sense of an inner mind at work. Her emotions seem to be revealed, or at least hinted at, by the look in her eyes, the enigma of her smile, and the erotic way she clutches and caresses the ermine.

macrocosm analogy began with his curiosity about why water, which should in theory tend to settle on the earth's surface, emerges from springs and flows into rivers at the top of mountains. The veins of the earth, he wrote, carry "the blood that keeps the mountains alive.

it is clear that Leonardo was charming and attractive and had many friends. "His disposition was so lovable that he commanded everyone's affection," according to Vasari. "He was so pleasing in conversation that he attracted to himself the hearts of men." Paolo Giovio, a near contemporary who met Leonardo in Milan, similarly remembered his pleasant nature. "He was friendly, precise, and generous, with a radiant, graceful expression

One day ladies will take their computers for walks in the park and tell each other 'My little computer said such a funny thing this morning!' " he japed in 1951.

Those who met with greater economic success in life were responsible to help those in genuine need; but those who from lack of virtue failed to pull their own weight could expect no help from society.

I was originally supposed to become an engineer," he later wrote a friend, "but the thought of having to expend my creative energy on things that make practical everyday life even more refined, with a bleak capital gain as the goal, was unbearable to me. Thinking for its own sake, like music!"72

There was no such thing as the Scientific Revolution

He wanted to accumulate knowledge for its own sake, and for his own personal joy, rather than out of a desire to make a public name for himself as a scholar or to be part of the progress of history.

Rather than try to conform, he made a point of being different, dressing and carrying himself as a dandy.

The maker culture in America, ever since the days of community barn raisers and quilting bees, often involved do-it-ourselves rather than do-it-yourself.

The thing that Von Neumann had, which I've noticed that other geniuses have, is the ability to pick out, in a particular problem, the one crucial thing that's important.

To dwell on the things that depress or anger us does not help in overcoming them. One must knock them down alone." His

Many of the prophecy-riddles reflect Leonardo's love for animals. "Countless numbers will have their little children taken away and their throats shall be cut," is one prophecy, as if describing a brutal act of war and genocide. But then Leonardo, who had become a vegetarian, reveals that this prophecy refers to the sheep and cows that humans eat.

See how the wings, striking against the air, sustain the heavy eagle in the thin air on high," he noted, then added, "As much force is exerted by the object against the air as by the air against the object."16 Two hundred years later, Newton would state a refined version of this as his third law of motion: "To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.