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

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

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.

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

I have only too much of a wife in this art of mine, who has always kept me in tribulation, and my children shall be the works I leave, which, even if they are naught, will live for a while. (on why he hadn’t married and started a family)

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

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