What do you despise? By this you are truly known. (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. (Michelangelo)
The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has. (Michelangelo)
My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth's loveliness. (Michelangelo)
If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all. (Michelangelo)
After four tortured years, more than 400 over life-sized figures, I felt as old and as weary as Jeremiah. I was only 37, yet friends did not recognize the old man I had become. (Michelangelo)
From such a gentle thing, from such a fountain of all delight, my every pain is born. (Michelangelo)
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. (Michelangelo)
A man paints with his brains and not with his hands. (Michelangelo)
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. (Michelangelo)
Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle. (Michelangelo)
Faith in oneself is the best and safest course. (Michelangelo)
Death and love are the two wings that bear the good man to heaven. (Michelangelo)
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. (Michelangelo)