Selected Quotes By Michelangelo
"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."
Michelangelo, Life
"I am still learning."
Michelangelo, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Trifles make perfection, but perfection is no trifle."
Michelangelo, Work
"A beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it."
Michelangelo, Happiness
"After four tortured years, more than 400 over life-sized figures, I felt as old and as weary as Jeremiah. I was only 37, yet friends did not recognize the old man I had become."
Michelangelo, Work
"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."
Michelangelo, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it."
Michelangelo, Intelligence/Wisdom
"A man paints with his brains and not with his hands."
Michelangelo, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Why do you send fools to judge my work?"
Michelangelo, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Take care of yourself, and watch out for those you have to watch out for, for one does not die more than once, and nobody returns to put right the things done wrong."
Michelangelo, Life
"Your gifts lie in the place where your values, passions and strengths meet. Discovering that place is the first step toward sculpting your masterpiece, Your Life."
Michelangelo, Life
"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."
Michelangelo, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Attend to living, and let property go sooner than suffer discomforts, for I would rather have you alive and poor, because if you were dead, I wouldn’t care for all the gold in the world, and if those chirping crickets there [in Florence] or anyone else reproves you, let them talk, for they are ignorant men and without love."
Michelangelo, Wealth
"The best artist has that thought alone which is contained within the marble shell; only the sculptor's hand can break the spell to free the figures."
Michelangelo, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Where I lack words I shall supply with deeds."
Michelangelo, Kindness
"They say that those who do good to the good make them better, and to the bad, make them worse."
Michelangelo, Kindness
"It is well with me only when I have a chisel in my hand."
Michelangelo, Work
"Draw, Antonio; draw, Antonio; draw and don’t waste time."
Michelangelo, Time
"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark."
Michelangelo, Goals
"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all."
Michelangelo, Work
"Genius is eternal patience."