Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Michelangelo Painter

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: Italy
  • Born: Mar 6, 1475
  • Died: Feb 18, 1564

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci.

Michelangelo was considered the greatest living artist in his lifetime, and ever since then he has been held to be one of the greatest artists of all time. A number of his works in painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence. His output in every field during his long life was prodigious; when the sheer volume of correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences that survive is also taken into account, he is the best-documented artist of the 16th century.

Two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, were sculpted before he turned thirty.

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

Faith in oneself is the best and safest course.

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

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

Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.

I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.

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

Genius is eternal patience.

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

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

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

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

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

I am still learning.

I live and love in God's peculiar light.