"If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all."
- Michelangelo Buonarroti
"But if it so happens ... a work ... under pain of otherwise becoming shameful or false, requires fantasy ... [and that] certain limbs or elements of a figure are altered by borrowing from other specie..."
"Critique by creating."
"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?"
"Draw, Antonio; draw, Antonio; draw and don’t waste time."
"Precious is sleep, better to be of stone,while the oppression and the shame still last;not seeing and not hearing, I am blest;so do not wake me, hush! keep your voice down."
"O night, O sweetest time, though black of hue,with peace you force all the restless work to end;those who exalt you see and understand,and he is sound of mind who honours you.You cut the thread of tir..."
"Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle."
"If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn't call it genius. "