Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I cannot live under pressures from patrons, let alone paint.
I was never the kind of painter or sculptor who kept a shop.
Art is a jealous thing; it requires the whole and entire man.
True art is made noble and religious by the mind producing it.
The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
No thought is born in me that does not bear the image of death.
I have never felt salvation in nature. I love cities above all.
Perfection is no small thing, but it is made up of small things.
Death and love are the two wings that bear the good man to heaven.
However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man.
Sculpture is made by taking away, while painting is made by adding.
If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn't call it genius.
No one has mastery, Before he is at the end, Of his art and his life.
I couldn't give you something mediocre even if that's all you asked for.
An artist must have his measuring tools not in the hand, but in the eye.
Souls will never ascend to Heaven until the sight of beauty lifts them there.
A beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it.
The idea is there locked inside. All you have to do is remove the excess stone.
Read the heart and not the letter for the pen cannot draw near the good intent.
My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth's loveliness.
If people knew how hard I worked at my art, they would not consider me a genius.
Do you know that women who are chaste remain much fresher than those who are not?
He who does not master the nude cannot understand the principles of architecture.
Perchance that I might learn what pity is, That I might laugh at erring men no more.
The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has.
From such a gentle thing, from such a fountain of all delight, my every pain is born.
If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.
I already have a wife who is too much for me.. she is my art, and my works are my children.
The best of artists has no conception that the marble alone does not contain within itself.
I created a vision of David in my mind and simply carved away everything that was not David.
Poets and painters have the power to dare, I mean to dare to do whatever they may approve of.
Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.
The power of one fair face makes my love sublime, for it has weaned my heart from low desires.
It is therefore indisputable that the limbs of architecture are derived from the limbs of man.
Love is a beautiful image Imagined or seen within the heart, The friend of virtue and gentility.
The greatest risk to man is not that he aims to high and misses, but that he aims to low and hits.
Art is the gift of God, and must be used unto His glory. That in art is highest which aims at this.
Can't you see the angel imprisoned in the block of stone trying to get out? I am trying to free him
A good artist ought never to allow impatience to overcome his sense of the main end of art - perfection
Whenever a great painter... does a work which appears to be false and lying, that falsity is very true.
Let whoever may have attained to so much as to have the power of drawing know that he holds a great treasure.
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.
If I love in thee, beloved, only what thou lovest most, do not be angry; for so one spirit is enamoured of another.
To know each other is the best way to understand each other. To understand each other is the only way to love each other.
Do not be concerned that you might set a target too high and fail. Be concerned that you will set it too low and succeed.
The greatest 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 reach it.
If we have been pleased with life, we should not be displeased with death, since it comes from the hand of the same master.
An artist does his most difficult work when he steps back from the blank canvas and thinks about what he is going to create.
Beauty depends on purpose. It is in the elements best suited to their purpose or aim that beauty shines forth most strongly.