Saper vedere and Everyday Greatness

Stumbled upon this Latin quote "Saper Vedere" from Leonardo Da Vinci in a Everyday Greatness, a book containing the best stories from Reader's Digest. Immediately, did a search on it and found that it meant "Knowing How to See.

Found an Internet link in A D V E N T U R E S in C Y B E R S O U N D and it clearly explains as below:

"An artist by disposition and endowment, he found that his eyes were his main avenue to knowledge; to Leonardo, sight was man's highest sense organ because sight alone conveyed the facts of experience immediately, correctly, and with certainty. Hence, every phenomenon perceived became an object of knowledge. Saper vedere ("knowing how to see") became the great theme of his studies of man's works and nature's creations. His creativity reached out into every realm in which graphic representation is used: he was painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer. But he went even beyond that. His superb intellect, his unusual powers of observation, and his mastery of the art of drawing led him to the study of nature itself, which he pursued with method and penetrating logic, and in which his art and his science were equally revealed."

So, in effect Leonardo did not depend on knowledge from books themselves, but through his powers of observation and experimentation of different fields of knowledge was he able to innovate and create more knowledge. He is definitely the greatest knowledge producer of all time!

Anyway, Everyday Greatness is also fantastic book; culling out short stories which I feel had some heart-warming endings for some and also inspiring in its message. The story of John Brady and Hazel truly touched me. I hope to finish it soon.... Life is also about fulfilling our inner soul, by reading stories like these, and hopefully being able to emulate the people in their noble behaviour and actions.

I guess Reader's Digest is the very original magazine that really is a good read. I remember my mum used to subscribe them when I was young and I used to pick them up to read in little chunks. Never did realise that it has such profound stories that can uplift people. Looks like its only other match would be Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen; had managed to see a VCD title, but not their books.