Quotes from Michelangelo

The more the marble wastes, the more the statue grows.

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

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.

Everything hurts.

The idea is there, locked inside, and all you have to do is remove the excess stone.

Trifles make perfection, but perfection is no trifle.

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.

Ancora Imparo (Yet I am learning)

The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.

If I am more alive because love burns and chars me, as a fire, given wood or wind, feels new elation, it's that he who lays me low is my salvation, and invigorates the more, the more he scars me.

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.

With few words I shall make thee understand my soul.

Read the heart and not the letter for the pen cannot draw near the good intent.

Draw, Antonio; draw, Antonio; draw and don't waste time.

Death and love are the two wings that bear the good man to heaven.

Why do You Send Fools To judge My Work?

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?

AS YOU GIVE OUT SO SHALL YOU RECEIVE.

So now, from this mad passion Which made me take art for an idol and a king I have learnt the burden of error that it bore And what misfortune springs from man's desire... The world's frivolities have robbed me of the time That I was given for reflecting upon God.

Believe it or not, I can actually draw.

20. "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.

I know well that, at this hour, I could as easily forget your name as the food by which I live by; nay, it were easier to forget the food, which only nourishes by body miserably, than your name, which nourishes both body and soul, filling the one and the other with such sweetness that neither weariness nor fear of death is felt by me while memory preserves you to my mind. Think, if the eyes could also enjoy their portion, in what condition I should find myself.

Your greatness is measured by your horizons.

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