Michelangelo Quotes - Page 5

And still I am learning.

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

Nature did all things well

It is better decoration when, in painting, some monstrosity is introduced for variety and a relaxation of the senses and to attract the attention of mortal eyes, which at times desire to see that which they have never seen.

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

Good painting is the kind that looks like sculpture.

The power of one fair face makes my love sublime, for it has weaned my heart from low desires.

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.

No thought is born in me that does not bear the image of death.

I give my soul to God, my body to the earth, and my worldly possessions to my nearest of kin, charging them to remember the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.

There is an angel imprisoned in it and I must set it free.

Serene I fold my hands and wait.

No one has mastery, Before he is at the end, Of his art and his life.

The goods of Fortune, even such as they really are, still need taste to enjoy them. It is the enjoying no the possessing, that makes us happy.

Can't you see the angel imprisoned in the block of stone trying to get out? I am trying to free him

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.

The great tragedy of life is not that people set their sights too high and fail to achieve their goals but that they set their sights too low and do.

I feast on wine and bread, and feasts they are.

I was never the kind of painter or sculptor who kept a shop.

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

Perchance that I might learn what pity is, That I might laugh at erring men no more.

Carving is easy, you just go down to the skin and stop.

A good sculpture can be rolled downhill without breaking.

I am no artist - please come and help me.