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.

Let it be enough for you to have bread and live virtuously and poorly like Christ, as I do here. I live meanly and don't bother about life or honor ... and I live with the greatest toil and a thousand worries. It is now about 15 years since I had a happy hour.

The power of one fair face makes my love sublime, for it has weaned my heart from low desires.

My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth's loveliness.

Why do You Send Fools To judge My Work?

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

Good painting is nothing else but a copy of the perfections of God and a reminder of His painting. Finally, good painting is a music and a melody which intellect only can appreciate, and with great difficulty.