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

The best of artists hath no thought to show, which the rough stone in its superfluous shell, doth not include; to break the marble spell, is all the hand that serves the brain can do.

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.

If people knew how hard I worked at my art, they would not consider me a genius.

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

Every beauty which is seen here by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all are come.