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Who really said it

Everything is connected to everything else

Not Leonardo da Vinci — actually Barry Commoner Barry Commoner 1917–2012 · American biologist & ecologist
Disputed In copyright

There is no evidence Leonardo da Vinci ever wrote this line, and none of his notebooks contain it. As a stated maxim the exact wording is the first of biologist Barry Commoner’s four “laws of ecology” in The Closing Circle (1971). Related thoughts appear earlier in Lessing (1769), Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1896) and John Muir (1911), per Quote Investigator ↗.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Everything is connected to everything else” Not Leonardo da Vinci. "Everything is connected to everything else" is the first of Barry Commoner's four laws of ecology, from The Closing Circle (1971).

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Leonardo da Vinci. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Estate of Barry Commoner / Alfred A. Knopf (publisher of The Closing Circle)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Barry Commoner — American biologist, ecologist & environmental activist. Theme: "Everything is connected to everything else". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Everything is connected to everything else". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Where it actually comes from

Attributed online to
Leonardo da Vinci (unsupported)
Best-documented source
The Closing Circle
Author & date
Barry Commoner, 1971
Earlier echoes
Lessing (1769); Holmes Jr. (1896); Muir (1911)

Everything is connected to everything else.

The first of Barry Commoner’s four “laws of ecology” in The Closing Circle (1971); the remaining three are “Everything must go somewhere,” “Nature knows best,” and “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”

Quote Investigator: origin of the saying

How we verified this

  • Quote Investigator traces the earliest da Vinci attribution only to a 1991 newspaper and finds that “this evidence is not substantive” — read the investigation ↗.
  • The exact wording is documented as the first of Barry Commoner’s four laws of ecology in The Closing Circle (1971), per Wikipedia ↗.
  • Earlier kindred lines include John Muir’s 1911 “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe,” noted by Quote Investigator ↗.
In copyright

The best-documented source of this exact wording, Barry Commoner’s The Closing Circle, was first published in 1971 and remains in copyright in the United States. The line is not tied to any pre-1931 work of Leonardo da Vinci, so no public-domain status can be claimed for this phrasing.

Fact-check

How Leonardo got the credit

This tidy, holistic-sounding line is exactly the kind of aphorism that gets pinned on Leonardo da Vinci — a byword for genius who conveniently died in 1519 and cannot object.

Leonardo da Vinci Unsupported

No Leonardo notebook or letter contains this line. Quote Investigator ↗ finds the earliest da Vinci attribution only in a 1991 newspaper — nearly five centuries after his death.

The thought is old and the wording is Barry Commoner’s (1971); the Leonardo label is a late-20th-century invention with no support ↗.

Context

Why it caught on

The line reads like ancient wisdom, but its modern fame is ecological. Barry Commoner used it in 1971 to argue that you cannot tinker with one part of an ecosystem without consequences rippling everywhere — a rebuke to reductionist, pollute-and-forget thinking.

Because the idea feels timeless, it drifted onto Renaissance-genius quote lists. Leonardo did write admiringly about the interconnection of natural forms, which makes the misattribution feel plausible — but feeling plausible is not the same as being sourced.

Old idea, modern wording — and not Leonardo’s.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Wisdom

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Everything Is Connected To Everything Elsequoteinvestigator.com

Full provenance chronology; finds the da Vinci credit unsupported.
Barry Commoneren.wikipedia.org

Confirms the four laws of ecology and The Closing Circle (1971).
The Closing Circle (excerpt)markstoll.net

Scanned excerpt of Commoner’s book hosting the laws of ecology.
Leonardo da Vinci quotesquoteinvestigator.com

QI index of other sayings wrongly pinned on Leonardo.
The Four Laws of Ecologyecolandscaping.org

Overview of Commoner’s four laws in context.

The author

About Barry Commoner

Barry Commoner

1917–2012 · American biologist, ecologist & environmental activist

Barry Commoner was an American cellular biologist who became one of the founders of the modern environmental movement. In his 1971 bestseller The Closing Circle he distilled ecological thinking into four memorable “laws,” the first being “everything is connected to everything else.” He ran for U.S. president in 1980 on the Citizens Party ticket.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Barry Commoner, The Closing Circle: Nature, Man, and Technology (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971), first of the four “laws of ecology.” Earliest da Vinci attribution documented in the Regina Sun (1991), per Quote Investigator.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Everything is connected to everything else’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/everything-is-connected-to-everything-else

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