Finally, a caveat: scholars have not found this sentence in Leonardo’s notebooks; modern researchers (e.g., Quote Investigator) consider the wording likely 20th-century. Even so, its endurance owes to a genuine Leonardo thread—relentless study of flight and the conviction that heights are intelligible. Whether apocryphal or authentic, the line distills a reliable human arc: touch the extraordinary, and you will spend the rest of your days glancing upward, plotting, in thought or craft, the return. [...]
