Michelangelo Quotes & Sayings

It is therefore indisputable that the limbs of architecture are derived from the limbs of man. — Michelangelo

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 ... — Michelangelo

I saw an angel in the block of marble and I just chiseled until I set him free. — Michelangelo

I sometimes set myself thinking and imagining that I find amongst men but one single art or science, and that is drawing or painting, all others being members proceeding therefrom. — Michelangelo

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

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. — Michelangelo

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 I am deprived. — Michelangelo

When they asked Michelangelo how he made his statue of David he is reported to have said, It is easy. You just chip away the stone that doesn't look like David. — Michelangelo

So take care of your life and take notice and be observant, for the number of widows is always far greater than the number of widowers. — Michelangelo

Heaven-born, the soul a heavenward course must hold; beyond the world she soars; the wise man, I affirm, can find no rest in that which perishes, nor will he lend his heart to ought that doth time depend — Michelangelo

Art is the gift of God, and must be used unto His glory. That in art is highest which aims at this. — Michelangelo

Painting and sculpture, labour and good faith, have been my ruin and I continually go from bad to worse. Better it would have been for me if I had set myself to making matches in my youth. I should not be in such distress of mind. — Michelangelo

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. — Michelangelo

My beard towards heaven, I feel my nape support / The back of my head, I grow the breast of a harpy / And my brush as it drips continually / Upon my face, makes it a gorgeous floor. — Michelangelo

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. — Michelangelo

The hand that follows intellect can achieve. — Michelangelo

It 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 were possible, a saint, so that the Holy Spirit may inspire his intellect. — Michelangelo

I live and love in God's peculiar light. — Michelangelo

A good artist ought never to allow impatience to overcome his sense of the main end of art - perfection — Michelangelo

It is well with me only when I have a chisel in my hand. — Michelangelo

If the wine is not good, then throw it out! — Michelangelo

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. — Michelangelo

My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth's loveliness. — Michelangelo

Lord free me of myself, so I can please you! — Michelangelo

I already have a wife who is too much for me.. she is my art, and my works are my children. — Michelangelo

He who does not master the nude cannot understand the principles of architecture. — Michelangelo

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

A good sculpture can be rolled downhill without breaking. — Michelangelo

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 love for God and I put all my hope in Him. — Michelangelo

If I love in thee, beloved, only what thou lovest most, do not be angry; for so one spirit is enamoured of another. — Michelangelo

I couldn't give you something mediocre even if that's all you asked for. — Michelangelo

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

An artist must have his measuring tools not in the hand, but in the eye. — Michelangelo

I created a vision of David in my mind and simply carved away everything that was not David. — Michelangelo

Sculpture is made by taking away, while painting is made by adding. — Michelangelo

Poets and painters have the power to dare, I mean to dare to do whatever they may approve of ... — Michelangelo

Love lent me wings; my path was like a stair;
A lamp unto my feet, that sun was given;
And death was safety and great joy to find;
But dying now, I shall not climb to Heaven. — Michelangelo

Genius is infinite painstaking. — Michelangelo

I criticise by creation, not by finding fault. — Michelangelo

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. — Michelangelo

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

Beauty depends on purpose. It is in the elements best suited to their purpose or aim that beauty shines forth most strongly. — Michelangelo

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

Led by long years to my last hours, too late, O world, I know your joys for what they are. You promise a peace which is not yours to give and the repose that dies before it is born. The years of fear and shame to which Heaven now set a term, renew nothing in me but the old sweet error in which, living overlong a man kills his soul with no gain to his body. I say and I know having put it to the proof, that he has the better part in Heaven whose death falls nearest his birth. — Michelangelo

To touch is to give life. — Michelangelo

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. — Michelangelo

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

The science of design, or of line-drawing, if you like to use this term, is the source and very essence of painting, sculpture, architecture ... Sometimes ... it seems to me that ... all the works of the human brain and hand are either design itself or a branch of that art. — 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

Faith in oneself is the best and safest course. — Michelangelo

I always liked instrumental music, and I think there's a vehicle out there for it. I think a true artist not only records, but you have to perform and you have to have some kind of consistent output. You can't just put out an album every ten years and never play - that's not an artist, that's something else. But I find there's always been a vehicle for what I've done, because I get out there and play all the time. I say 12 hundred shows on my website just in case, because we can't verify it, but it's more like 15 hundred! — Michelangelo

The 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 generator of creative solutions in relation to a given problem. — Michelangelo

Painters are not in any way unsociable through pride, but either because they find few pursuits equal to painting, or in order not to corrupt themselves with the useless conversation of idle people, and debase the intellect from the lofty imaginations in which they are always absorbed. — Michelangelo

Trifles make perfection but perfection is not a trifle — Michelangelo

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

Whenever a great painter ... does a work which appears to be false and lying, that falsity is very true. — Michelangelo

Art is a jealous thing; it requires the whole and entire man. — Michelangelo

I 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. — Michelangelo

You 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, who can do or say something more appropriately than the rest of the world, I am compelled to fall in love with him; and then I give myself up to him so entirely that I am no longer my own property, but wholly his. — Michelangelo

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

Nature did all things well — Michelangelo

A great sculpture can roll down a hill without breaking. — Michelangelo

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

True art is made noble and religious by the mind producing it. — Michelangelo

Even if you are divine, you don't disdain male consorts. — Michelangelo

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

The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has. — Michelangelo

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

Love is a beautiful image Imagined or seen within the heart, The friend of virtue and gentility. — Michelangelo

An artist does his most difficult work when he steps back from the blank canvas and thinks about what he is going to create. — Michelangelo

Gazing on beautiful things acts on my soul. — Michelangelo

No great work of art is ever finished. — Michelangelo

Only God creates. The rest of us just copy. — Michelangelo

I am no artist - please come and help me. — Michelangelo

And who is so barbarous as not to understand that the foot of a man is nobler than his shoe, and his skin nobler than that of the sheep with which he is clothed. — Michelangelo

Already at sixteen, my mind was a battlefield: my love of pagan beauty, the male nude, at war with my religious faith. A polarity of themes and forms: one spiritual, the other earthly. — Michelangelo

Art is a shadow of Divine perfection. — Michelangelo

The idea is there locked inside. All you have to do is remove the excess stone. — Michelangelo

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. — Michelangelo

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

How wrong are those simpletons, of whom the world is full, who look more at ... color than at the figures which show spirit and movement. — Michelangelo

Forgiveness is divine, but never pay pull price for late pizza. — Michelangelo

Do you know that women who are chaste remain much fresher than those who are not? — Michelangelo

For 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 after something divine. True painting is only the image of the perfection of God, a shadow of the pencil with which he paints, a melody, a striving after harmony. — Michelangelo

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

If it be true that any beautiful thing raises the pure and just desire of man from earth to God, the eternal fount of all, such I believe my love. — Michelangelo

If people knew how hard I worked at my art, they would not consider me a genius. — Michelangelo

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

Good painting is the kind that looks like sculpture. — Michelangelo

Perfection is no small thing, but it is made up of small things. — Michelangelo

Souls will never ascend to Heaven until the sight of beauty lifts them there. — Michelangelo

There is no greater harm than that of time wasted. — Michelangelo

Do not fret, for God did not create us to abandon us. — Michelangelo

The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor's hand can only break the spell To free the figures slumbering in the stone. — Michelangelo

And still I am learning. — Michelangelo

One paints with one's head, not one's hand. — Michelangelo

The best of artists hath no thought to show which the rough stone in its superfluous shell doth not include; to break the marble spell is all the hand that serves the brain can do. — Michelangelo

Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. — Michelangelo

Lord, make me see thy glory in every place. — Michelangelo

I serve for the love of God and in Him have all my hope. — Michelangelo