Who really said it

Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return

Q: Did Leonardo da Vinci say "Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return"?

No. This line was written by John H. Secondari to voice Leonardo's imagined thoughts in the 1965 ABC documentary I, Leonardo da Vinci (from the series The Saga of Western Man). It appears nowhere in Leonardo's own notebooks or letters. The film's wording was "And once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, and there you would return" — the now-famous version ("forever" … "always long to return") is a later paraphrase that spread after 1975.

Not Leonardo da Vinci — written by John H. Secondari John H. Secondari 1919–1975 · American author, journalist & TV documentary producer

Disputed In copyright

This line was written by John H. Secondari to voice Leonardo’s imagined thoughts in the 1965 ABC documentary I, Leonardo da Vinci (from the series The Saga of Western Man). It appears nowhere in Leonardo’s own notebooks or letters. The film’s wording was “And once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, and there you would return” — the now-famous version (“forever” … “always long to return”) is a later paraphrase that spread after 1975.

Last verified 14 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return” Written by John H. Secondari for the 1965 ABC film "I, Leonardo da Vinci" — not written by Leonardo da Vinci.

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 John H. Secondari / the copyright holders of The Saga of Western Man (originally ABC; CRM Films)). 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

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Provenance

The real source

Written by: John H. Secondari (1919–1975)
First appeared in: I, Leonardo da Vinci
Original medium: 1965 ABC television documentary, from the series The Saga of Western Man
Popular variant: A reworded version circulated from a 1975 magazine epigraph onward

And once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, and there you would return.

The wording as written by John H. Secondari for the 1965 film. The widely-shared “forever … always long to return” version is a later alteration, not Leonardo’s and not the film’s exact line.

Quote Investigator: full investigation of the “tasted flight” quote

How we verified this

Quote Investigator concludes the line “was created by John H. Secondari” for the 1965 film I, Leonardo da Vinci, and that researchers found nothing like it in Leonardo’s writings.
The film’s line read “…there you have been, and there you would return”; a 1975 Analog epigraph by George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle shifted it toward “there you long to return,” per QI.
By the mid-1970s the reworded line was being “incorrectly reassigned directly to Leonardo” in aviation and skydiving coverage, as noted by Air Facts Journal.

In copyright

The line was first written in 1965 for a copyrighted television film, and the popular variant spread from a 1975 magazine story — both well after 1931 — so the wording is in copyright. It is not a public-domain Leonardo text; despite the attribution, Leonardo wrote no such passage.

Fact-check

How it became a “Leonardo” quote

One of the internet’s most-shared “Leonardo da Vinci” lines was never written by Leonardo. It was scripted for him in a 1960s television documentary, then drifted loose from its source.

Leonardo da Vinci Misattributed

No such passage appears in Leonardo’s notebooks or letters. Quote Investigator reports researchers could not locate it anywhere in his writings; the attribution is a 20th-century error.

John H. Secondari True source

Secondari wrote the line to voice Leonardo’s imagined thoughts in the 1965 ABC film I, Leonardo da Vinci, per QI. The film’s wording was “…there you have been, and there you would return.”

George R. R. Martin & Lisa Tuttle (1975) Reworded

A 1975 Analog story used the line as an epigraph in a slightly altered form; from there the reworded version (“forever” … “long to return”) spread through skydiving and aviation writing under Leonardo’s name, as traced by QI.

The sentiment fits Leonardo’s real fascination with flight, but the words are John H. Secondari’s — written in 1965, not the Renaissance — per Quote Investigator.

Context

Why the mix-up stuck

Leonardo genuinely studied birds and designed flying machines, so a soaring line about flight feels authentically his. That plausibility is exactly what let a scriptwriter’s words pass for the master’s.

Secondari’s documentary put the sentence in Leonardo’s mouth as dramatized narration. Audiences and later quoters dropped the framing, and the line was repeated as though quoted from Leonardo’s own notebooks.

The thought suits Leonardo. The words are a 1965 screenwriter’s.

The path from film script to “Leonardo quote”

1965: John H. Secondari scripts the line for I, Leonardo da Vinci as first-person narration.

1975: a slightly reworded form appears as an epigraph in a George R. R. Martin & Lisa Tuttle story in Analog, and the line begins to be credited directly to Leonardo.

Late 1970s onward: skydiving, hang-gliding, and aviation writing spread the reworded “forever … always long to return” version under Leonardo’s name.

Explore

Filed under

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

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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.

Quote Investigator — full origin tracequoteinvestigator.com

The authoritative investigation identifying John H. Secondari and the 1965 film as the source.

Air Facts Journal — "The famous quote that da Vinci never said"airfactsjournal.com

Aviation-community write-up of the misattribution and how it spread among pilots.

On Verticality — analysis of the da Vinci flight quoteonverticality.com

Independent essay confirming Secondari as the likely author and that no proof ties it to Leonardo.

John Secondari — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the writer-producer behind The Saga of Western Man.

Talk:Leonardo da Vinci — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Editor discussion of Leonardo misattributions, including flight quotes.

The real author

About John H. Secondari

John H. Secondari

1919–1975 · American author, journalist & TV documentary producer

John Hermes Secondari was an American novelist, foreign correspondent, and television producer who created and wrote ABC’s acclaimed documentary series The Saga of Western Man. Working with his wife and co-producer Helen Jean Rogers, he earned multiple Emmy and Peabody awards for historical films. For the 1965 episode I, Leonardo da Vinci, he scripted first-person passages voicing Leonardo’s thoughts — including the “tasted flight” line later mistaken for Leonardo’s own words.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Documented origin

John H. Secondari, writer, I, Leonardo da Vinci, from the series The Saga of Western Man (American Broadcasting Company, 1965). Origin documented in Garson O’Toole, “Once You Have Tasted Flight You Will Walk the Earth With Your Eyes Turned Skyward,” Quote Investigator, January 7, 2019.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return’?” Last verified 14 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/once-you-have-tasted-flight-you-will-forever-walk-the-earth