MichelangeloThe marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has. ✨ Sonnet 15 (translation by Elizabeth Jennings)372Thought
MichelangeloBeauty is the purgation of superfluities. ✨ Character Sketches : Or, The Blackboard Mirror by George Augustus Lofton, (p. 432), 1890.351Truth
MichelangeloLord, make me see thy glory in every place.373Humanity
MichelangeloA great sculpture can roll down a hill without breaking.373Love
MichelangeloThe 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… ▶362DeathThought
MichelangeloThe art of creation lies in the gift of perceiving the particular and generalizing it, thus creating the particular again. It is therefore a powerful transforming force and a gene… ▶353Politics
MichelangeloIf there is some good in me, it is because I was born in the subtle atmosphere of your country of Arezzo. Along with the milk of my nurse I received the knack of handling chisel a… ▶365Death
MichelangeloIt is well with me only when I have a chisel in my hand.354Death
MichelangeloHe who does not master the nude cannot understand the principles of architecture.376Truth
MichelangeloDeath and love are the two wings that bear the good man to heaven.354DeathLove
MichelangeloEvery block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.322Truth
MichelangeloNo thought is born in me that does not bear the image of death.367DeathThought
MichelangeloFor those who feel it, nothing makes the soul so religious and pure as the endeavor to create something perfect; for God is perfection, and whoever strives after it, is striving a… ▶356SadnessTruth
MichelangeloWhy do You Send Fools To judge My Work?345Reflection
MichelangeloI was never the kind of painter or sculptor who kept a shop. ✨ As quoted in In Our Time : The Artist (BBC Radio 4), March 28, 2002.334SadnessTime
MichelangeloI dare affirm that any artist... who has nothing singular, eccentric, or at least reputed to be so, in his person, will never become a superior talent.379Love
MichelangeloCarving is easy, you just go down to the skin and stop.346Time
MichelangeloSculpture is made by taking away, while painting is made by adding. ✨ Georgia Illetschko, Michelangelo Buonarroti (2004). I, Michelangelo, Prestel Pub346Sadness
MichelangeloTrifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.359Sadness
MichelangeloIt is not sufficient merely to be a great master in painting and very wise, but I think that it is necessary for the painter to be very moral in his mode of life, or even, if such… ▶3610LifeSadnessThought
MichelangeloI 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.282Life
MichelangeloI serve for the love of God and in Him have all my hope.3510HopeLove
MichelangeloThe greatest risk to man is not that he aims to high and misses, but that he aims to low and hits.338Death
MichelangeloIf 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 m… ▶294LifeLove
MichelangeloLet whoever may have attained to so much as to have the power of drawing know that he holds a great treasure. ✨ Georgia Illetschko, Michelangelo Buonarroti (2004). I, Michel… ▶294Politics
MichelangeloI live and love in God's peculiar light.3510Love
MichelangeloA beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it.349Sadness
MichelangeloYou must know that I am, of all men who were ever born, the most inclined to love persons. Whenever I behold someone who possesses any talent or displays any dexterity of mind, wh… ▶272LoveThought
MichelangeloDear to me is sleep: still more, being made of stone, While pain and guilt still linger here below, Blindness and numbness--these please me alone; Then do not wake me, keep your v… ▶3410Sadness
MichelangeloIf you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn't call it genius. ✨ As quoted in Speeches & Presentations Unzipped by Lori Rozakis, (p. 71), 2007.3410Time
