Michelangelo

I am a poor man who has had to labor much in his old age.

The marble not yet carved can hold the most perfect of statues.

What is most difficult is to know oneself.

From such a sharp and woundy spear as faith is, love comes.

My soul can find no staircase to approach the love of God but through the beauty of His works.

The reason why the world is not happy is that it does not know how to live.

One paints with the heart.

To know oneself is the ultimate goal of the sculptor.

I have too high a mind to be a mere sculptor.

The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure much.

Patience is the mother of all virtues.

In every block of marble, there is a statue.

The work is the body, the idea the soul.

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

Beauty is the purgation of all superfluities.

My beard turns up to heaven; my nape falls in; my breast bone stands out; my face is drawn.

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

I feed on sorrow, and art is the noblest form of sorrow.

Death at times is a great blessing.

I am here in great distress and with great physical strain, and I have no friends or anyone to turn to.