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

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

Good painting is the kind that looks like sculpture.

Faith in oneself is the best and safest course.

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

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

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...

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.

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...

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

I live and love in God’s peculiar light.

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.

A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.

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...

Trifles make perfection, but perfection is no trifle.

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

The greater 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 hit it.

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 necessary to keep one’s compass in one’s eyes and not in the hand, for the hands execute, but the eye judges.

I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.

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

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

I am still learning.

If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.

Genius is eternal patience.

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

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.

Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.

A beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it.

If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.

There is no greater harm than that of time wasted.

I have never felt salvation in nature. I love cities above all.

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