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

“A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.”

“Carving is easy, you just go down to the skin and stop.”

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

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

“Genius is eternal patience.”

“Good painting is the kind that looks like sculpture.”

“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.”

“I am still learning.”

“I live and love in God's peculiar light.”

“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.”

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”

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

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

“It is well with me only when I have a chisel in my hand.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.”

“There is no greater harm than that of time wasted.”

“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?”