Michelangelo Buonarroti

“No thought is born in me that does not bear the image of death.”

“Critique by creating.”

“O night, O sweetest time, though black of hue,with peace you force all the restless work to end;those who exalt you see and understand,and he is sound of mind who honours you.You cut the thread of tired thoughts, for soyou offer calm in your moist shade; you sendto this low sphere the dreams where we ascendup to the highest, where I long to go.Shadow of death that brings to quiet closeall miseries that plague the heart and soul,for those in pain the last and best of cures;you heal the flesh of its infirmities,dry and our tears and shut away our toil,and free the good from wrath and fretting cares.”

“Precious is sleep, better to be of stone,while the oppression and the shame still last;not seeing and not hearing, I am blest;so do not wake me, hush! keep your voice down.”

“From such a gentle thing,from such a fountain of all delight,my every pain is born...”

“Cruzimea n-are rost unde-i iubire si nici puterea unde-i umilinta; blandetea-nvinge orice-mpotrivire, ca veseli orice suferinta.”

“In van! Cand vrei sa cazi, nu iei aminte la bratul care vrea sa te ridice.”

“As when, O lady mine,With chiselled touchThe stone unhewn and coldBecomes a living mould,The more the marble wastes,The more the statue grows.”

“Cel ce iubirea-si ia drept arma, frange destin si ura, forta si mizerii.”

“Ce viclesug, ce forta si ce geniu, stapan ingrat, m-ar duce iar la tine, chip milostiv ce-n inima porti moarte?”

“si zi de zi, mahnindu-l viitorul, la gandul mortii tresarind exulta si intre teama si nadejde tine pe cai imaginare sa-si ia zborul.”

“Se duc genii si durere, mor cuvinte si placere, generatii sub tacere, fum in vant, sub soare umbra.”

“Din ce e farmec si vremelnicie si indurare, raul meu se naste.”

“Iar razbunarea e aceasta: intrucat noi l-am ucis pe el, el asa mort cum este ne-a luat lumina si cu ochii inchisi i-a inchis pe-ai nostri, care nu mai stralucesc deasupra pamantului.”

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

“I am still learning.”

“You no longer feel the fear of a change of being and desire . . . The course of the hours lays not violent hands upon you ; necessity and chance guide not your steps ... I can hardly write without envy. --Michelangelo on the dead.”

“If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn't call it genius. ”

“The true work of artis but a shadow of the divine perfection”

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

“По-голямата опасност за мнозина от нас не е, че целта ни е твърде висока и се проваляме, а че е твърде ниска и я постигаме.”

“Dear to me is sleep: still more, being made of stone,While pain and guilt still linger here below,Blindness and numbness--these please me alone;Then do not wake me, keep your voices low.”

“If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.”

“Beauty is the purgation of superfluities.”

“Patience is eternal genius”

“Genius is eternal patience. ”

“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.”

“Is it any wonder, since, when near the fire, I was melted and burned, if now that it's extinguished outside me, it besets and consumes me inside, and bit by bit reduces me to ashes?”

“The greatest artist does not have any conceptWhich a single piece of marble does not itself containWithin its excess, though onlyA hand that obeys the intellect can discover it.”