Joe, like I was saying on the Msn, whataver tension can push you towards self-improvement, and trying to do good in this world, is really precious.
But, given the times Leonardo lived in, adding "God" to every sentence was a natural thing.
What surprises me is the "mankind" part. His thoughts were probably that every man able to, must do good for all mankind. And that's a very humanistic, almost Renaissance-like thought, if it's so.

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Very good point, i forgot to take into account for the time period. It sounded to me almost like he really thought of himself as a genius. And he thought that by what he was doing would truly help out everyone in the future. Maybe he knew something we didn't, and he just never got a chance to expand on it

Maybe he thought being gay had offended God.

How do we know Leonardo was gay?
When he was twenty-four years old, Leonardo was arrested, along with several young companions, on the charge of sodomy.

On a more posite note:

The following is from Serge Bramly's great book about him:

No other personality was so intimidating, no other career so difficult to encompass, so biographers often resort to the assumption
that Leonardo embodied some superhuman quality: "il divino". Vasari (a contemporary biographer of Leonardo) writes "there is something
supernatural in the accumulation in one individual of so much beauty, grace, and might. With his right hand he could twist an iron
horseshoe as if it were made of lead. In his liberality, he welcomed and gave food to any friend, rich or poor." His kindness, his
sweet nature, his eloquence ("his speech could bend in any direction the most obdurate of wills") his regal magnanimity, his sense
of humor, his love of wild creatures, his "terrible strength in argument, sustained by intelligence and memory," the subtlety of
his mind "which never ceased to devise inventions," his aptitude for mathematics, science, music, poetry. What's more, Leonardo
was a man of "physical beauty beyond compare."

All this from a gay guy.

I dont think he was very religious, his art work was for patrons that wanted a religious theme. He was more of an Inventor in everything. Always looking to improve his invention that included his art. I hope everyone tries to improve their work if that be art, garbage collectors or what ever.

Rebecca

Villa, interesting read. For anyone able to read Ancient Italian ( ) here is the link to the complete text Vasari wrote about Leonardo: http://bepi1949.altervista.org/vasari/vasari95.htm

PS: Why does your last sentence sounds like: All this despite he being gay?


EDIT: Found it in English too: http://www.efn.org/~acd/vite/VasariLeo.html

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PS: Why does your last sentence sounds like: All this despite he being gay?

That's sarcasm or my attemp to taunt anti-gay people. I personally have nothing against gay people but many people do.
Gay marriage and the like is a non issue for me. Let gay people marry. Who cares. We have much more important matters to tend to.
I'm not gay. Let't get that clear. Not that there is anything wrong with it.

He was a bit of everything. He also studied anatomy and things similar to that.

Proof that what we write on the computer can be misunderstood what with the lack of body language, tone of voice, facial expression...
And Villa you kill me, all laissez-faire regarding gays...but Let's be perfectly clear that I'M not gay! Lest anyone think for a moment....! LOLOL You are too funny!.....

Villa, I perfectly understand.
Some indeep shade of meaning is easily lost in translation, and this is made worse by Internet language, that as Tango said doesnt allow you to read body signals or intonation.

Anyways I want to add that usually genius comes from diversity or difficulty.
From a very normal situation, with a very normal life, it's very rare to receive masterpieces.
You have to see the bottom to stand up and talk about it, and we all know that idilliac things don't attract human minds in literature.

That's why a good percentage of great artists are/were drug addicted, gays, depressed, mentally insane, deformed, tormented, and so on.

If you want the names I'll give them

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I don't think thats necessarily true. Maybe they are just born with that talent, but given the solitude many of them take to do their work, they turn to drugs/alcohol. Its almost like a viscous circle