Da Vinci: Tell me, tell me if anything ever got done

Unsentimental Education

Leonardo da Vinci was so full of self-loathing and self-doubt that, whenever he tested a new quill, he would scrawl the same unhappy inquiry: “Dimmi, dimmi se mai fu fatta cosa alcuna” (Tell me, tell me if anything ever got done).

Just a juicy little tidbit from a great writer (Hitchens) writing about a good writer (Hughes) writing about the archtypal modern genuis (Leonardo).

Of course we know that Leonardo’s besetting weakness was difficulty finishing things.