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.
I couldn't give you something mediocre even if that's all you asked for.
If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.
Souls will never ascend to Heaven until the sight of beauty lifts them there.
Sculpture is made by taking away, while painting is made by adding.
In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.