Michelangelo

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.

It is well with me only when I have a chisel in my hand.

Good painting is the kind that looks like sculpture.

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.

Even if you are divine, you don't disdain male consorts.

Carving is easy, you just go down to the skin and stop.

Every beauty which is seen here by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all are come.

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.

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.

What do you despise? By this you are truly known.

From such a gentle thing, from such a fountain of all delight, my every pain is born.

I cannot live under pressures from patrons, let alone paint.

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.

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.

The best of artists has no conception that the marble alone does not contain within itself.

If we have been pleased with life, we should not be displeased with death, since it comes from the hand of the same master.

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.

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.

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?