Faith in oneself is the best and safest course.

- Michelangelo

Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.

- Michelangelo

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

- Michelangelo

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

- 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

Genius is eternal patience.

- Michelangelo

I am still learning.

- Michelangelo

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

- Michelangelo

Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.

- Michelangelo

Death and love are the two wings that bear the good man to heaven.

- 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

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

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

- 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

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

- Michelangelo

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

I have never felt salvation in nature. I love cities above all.

- Michelangelo

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

- Michelangelo

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

- 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