Mens sana in corpore sano

This Latin phrase translates to "healthy mind in a healthy body" - Roman poet Juvenal (10.356)

A comparison among the greatest two exponents of this quote - Michelangelo & da Vinci

Leonardo said, "Nature is the source of all true knowledge; she has her own logic, her own laws; she has no effect without cause; no invention without necessity." He had no formal education, hence couldn't write well, instead, drew his ideas. He wanted to know everything & his life has been the quest of unraveling the mysteries of nature. Michelangelo was a perfectionist & couldn't withstand criticism. Once a co-painter, Torrigiano, broke his nose; a damage that never healed, which made him look even uglier. So he remained obsessed with beauty throughout his life. People still debate who among these Italians is the ultimate "The Renaissance Man".

Both of them grew up alone, without a mother.

Leonardo dwelled in the future tense. His notebook is a testimony of the grand ideas he had conceived, 500 years before those were actually realized. It included design for the flying machine, battle tanks, under-water diving suits, study of human anatomy and maps, even the design of spectacles. Michelangelo lived in the present tense. He was an ferocious executioner, completing most of the works he had commenced - the Pita, statue of David, Sistine chapel fresco and even engineered the revamped architecture of Medici chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. Once Michelangelo scoffed Leonardo because Leonardo never completed the magnum bronze status of a warhorse he had promised to his patron, Ludovico Sforza.

Both of them loved symmetry and dissected human corpse.

Leonardo was the Class. According to folklore, he was courteous, sober and affable. He kept a good company and participated regularly in discussion circles. Michelangelo was the Mass. He was known to be unkempt, rude and braggish. Its also said that he rarely bathed and slept with his shoes on; to the extent that it peeled off his skin when he took those off.

Both of them never married.

Leonardo was the brain of God & Michelangelo, the hand of God. Leonardo thought what no one had ever thought, Michelangelo did which no ever had ever done. Leonardo's highly accurate studies of anatomy match the modern medical textbooks and Michelangelo's amazing layout and perception of Sistine chapel fresco can undermine the advanced designing software. According to Vasari, Leonardo and Michelangelo were pitted against one another by the shrewd Machiavelli, to draw side by side, the walls of Council Hall of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The competition never completed. Instead he could have asked Leonardo to "think" and Michelangelo to "do".

Leonardo is the mind, Michelangelo is the body. Following is my humble tribute to these amazing men.