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

• 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.
• I cannot live under pressures from patrons, let alone paint.
• The best of artists has no conception that the marble alone does not contain within itself.
• A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.
• The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.
• Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.
• 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.
• 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.
• Every beauty which is seen here by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all are come.