1.
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.
Michelangelo
The greatest peril for the majority of us is not that our ambition is too lofty and we fail to achieve it, but that it is too limited and we realize it.
2.
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
Your aptitudes lie in the area where your principles, desires and capabilities converge. Unearthing that place is the initial move towards forming your magnum opus, Your Life.
3.
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
Michelangelo
I perceived the celestial entity embedded in the stone and chiseled until I liberated it.
4.
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
The larger peril for most of us does not lie in aiming too high and falling short; rather, it lies in aiming too low and hitting the target.
5.
To know each other is the best way to understand each other. To understand each other is the only way to love each other.
Michelangelo
'Familiarity is the path to comprehension and only through comprehension can we truly love one another.'
6.
I created a vision of David in my mind and simply carved away everything that was not David.
Michelangelo
I envisioned David in my head and meticulously removed all that was not him.
7.
Do not fret, for God did not create us to abandon us.
Michelangelo
Do not be anxious, for God did not make us to forsake us.
8.
If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.
Michelangelo
If people were aware of the effort it took for me to become a master, then my achievement would not be so awe-inspiring.
9.
Perfection is no small thing, but it is made up of small things.
Michelangelo
Accuracy is no minor detail, yet it consists of minute details.
10.
Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.
Michelangelo
Every slab of marble holds a masterpiece within it and it is the duty of the sculptor to bring it forth.
11.
A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.
Michelangelo
A man creates with his intellect and not with his appendages.
12.
In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.
Michelangelo
13.
The idea is there locked inside. All you have to do is remove the excess stone.
Michelangelo
14.
Your greatness is measured by your horizons.
Michelangelo
15.
The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.
Michelangelo
16.
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
17.
Only God creates. The rest of us just copy.
Michelangelo
18.
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
19.
The greatest risk to man is not that he aims to high and misses, but that he aims to low and hits.
Michelangelo
20.
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
21.
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
22.
Gazing on beautiful things acts on my soul.
Michelangelo
23.
No great work of art is ever finished.
Michelangelo
24.
What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed?
Michelangelo
25.
Sculpture is made by taking away, while painting is made by adding.
Michelangelo
26.
He who follows another will never overtake him
Michelangelo
27.
Genius is eternal patience.
Michelangelo
28.
Beauty depends on purpose. It is in the elements best suited to their purpose or aim that beauty shines forth most strongly.
Michelangelo
29.
The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has.
Michelangelo
30.
There is no greater harm than that of time wasted.
Michelangelo
31.
Lord, make me see thy glory in every place.
Michelangelo
32.
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
33.
I have never felt salvation in nature. I love cities above all.
Michelangelo
34.
If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn't call it genius.
Michelangelo
35.
Do you know that women who are chaste remain much fresher than those who are not?
Michelangelo
36.
As you give out, so shall you receive.
Michelangelo
37.
I couldn't give you something mediocre even if that's all you asked for.
Michelangelo
38.
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
39.
An artist must have his measuring tools not in the hand, but in the eye.
Michelangelo
40.
Draw, Antonio; draw, Antonio; draw and don’t waste time.
Michelangelo
41.
Love is a beautiful image Imagined or seen within the heart, The friend of virtue and gentility.
Michelangelo
42.
I serve for the love of God and in Him have all my hope.
Michelangelo
43.
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
44.
I already have a wife who is too much for me.. she is my art, and my works are my children.
Michelangelo
45.
Art is a jealous thing; it requires the whole and entire man.
Michelangelo
46.
If I am more alive because love burns and chars me, as a fire, given wood or wind, feels new elation, it's that he who lays me low is my salvation, and invigorates the more, the more he scars me.
Michelangelo
47.
He who does not master the nude cannot understand the principles of architecture.
Michelangelo
48.
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
49.
Let it be enough for you to have bread and live virtuously and poorly like Christ, as I do here. I live meanly and don't bother about life or honor ... and I live with the greatest toil and a thousand worries. It is now about 15 years since I had a happy hour.
Michelangelo
50.
Lord free me of myself, so I can please you!
Michelangelo
