Michelangelo
The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor's hand can only break the spell To free the figures slumbering in the stone.Collection: Alone
Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.Collection: Art
I live and love in God's peculiar light.Collection: God
The best of artists has no conception that the marble alone does not contain within itself.Collection: Alone
Faith in oneself is the best and safest course.Collection: Faith
Genius is eternal patience.Collection: Patience
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.Collection: Imagination
I cannot live under pressures from patrons, let alone paint.Collection: Alone
Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.Collection: Inspirational
The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.Collection: Wisdom
Death and love are the two wings that bear the good man to heaven.Collection: Death
The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.Collection: Work
The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has.Collection: Art
Many believe - and I believe - that I have been designated for this work by God. In spite of my old age, I do not want to give it up; I work out of love for God and I put all my hope in Him.Collection: Hope
A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.Collection: Art
I am a poor man and of little worth, who is laboring in that art that God has given me in order to extend my life as long as possible.Collection: Art
Every beauty which is seen here by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all are come.Collection: Beauty
I have never felt salvation in nature. I love cities above all.Collection: Nature
If we have been pleased with life, we should not be displeased with death, since it comes from the hand of the same master.Collection: Death
I am still learning.Collection: Learning
If in my youth I had realized that the sustaining splendour of beauty of with which I was in love would one day flood back into my heart, there to ignite a flame that would torture me without end, how gladly would I have put out the light in my eyes.Collection: Beauty
Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.Collection: Imagination
There is no greater harm than that of time wasted.Collection: Time
My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth's loveliness.Collection: Nature
If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.
It is necessary to keep one's compass in one's eyes and not in the hand, for the hands execute, but the eye judges.
Even if you are divine, you don't disdain male consorts.
I live in sin, to kill myself I live; no longer my life my own, but sin's; my good is given to me by heaven, my evil by myself, by my free will, of which I am deprived.
What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed?
A beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it.
The more the marbles wastes, the more the statue grows.
What do you despise? By this you are truly known.
Good painting is the kind that looks like sculpture.
The greatest artist has no conception which a single block of white marble does not potentially contain within its mass, but only a hand obedient to the mind can penetrate to this image.
It is well with me only when I have a chisel in my hand.
Carving is easy, you just go down to the skin and stop.
The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms; and to confide in one's self, and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course.
From such a gentle thing, from such a fountain of all delight, my every pain is born.
The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.Collection: Inspirational
Your gifts lie in the place where your values, passions and strengths meet. Discovering that place is the first step toward sculpting your masterpiece, Your Life.Collection: Inspirational Life
I created a vision of David in my mind and simply carved away everything that was not David.Collection: Mind
Perfection is no small thing, but it is made up of small things.Collection: Perfection
Only God creates. The rest of us just copy.Collection: Copying
To know each other is the best way to understand each other. To understand each other is the only way to love each other.Collection: Way
In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.Collection: Art
The idea is there locked inside. All you have to do is remove the excess stone.Collection: Ideas
No great work of art is ever finished.Collection: Art
Do not be concerned that you might set a target too high and fail. Be concerned that you will set it too low and succeed.Collection: Entrepreneur
Your greatness is measured by your horizons.Collection: Greatness
Do not fret, for God did not create us to abandon us.Collection: Christianity