A beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it.
A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.
Beauty is the purgation of superfluities.
Carving is easy, you just go down to the skin and stop.
Death and love are the two wings that bear the good man to heaven.
Even if you are divine, you don't disdain male consorts.
Every beauty which is seen here by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all are come.
Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.
Faith in oneself is the best and safest course.
From such a gentle thing, from such a fountain of all delight, my every pain is born.
Genius is eternal patience.
Good painting is the kind that looks like sculpture.
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.
I am still learning.
I cannot live under pressures from patrons, let alone paint.
I have never felt salvation in nature. I love cities above all.
I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.
I live and love in God's peculiar light.
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.
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
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.
If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.
If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.
If we have been pleased with life, we should not be displeased with death, since it comes from the hand of the same master.
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.
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.
It is well with me only when I have a chisel in my hand.
Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.
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.
My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth's loveliness.
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.
The best of artists has no conception that the marble alone does not contain within itself.
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.
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.
The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has.
The more the marbles wastes, the more the statue grows.
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.
The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.
There is no greater harm than that of time wasted.
Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.
What do you despise? By this you are truly known.
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?
Quotes about Michelangelo by Art Historians and Fellow Artists
The first person since the great days of Greek sculpture to comprehend fully the identity of the nude with great figure art was Michelangelo. Before him it had been studied for scientific purposes - as an aid to rendering the draped figure. He saw that it was an end in itself, and the final purpose of his art. For him, the nude and art were synonymous.
Bernard Berenson
