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.

I dare affirm that any artist... who has nothing singular, eccentric, or at least reputed to be so, in his person, will never become a superior talent.

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

So take care of your life and take notice and be observant, for the number of widows is always far greater than the number of widowers.

The greatest artist has no conception which a single block of white marble does not potentially contain within its mass, but only a hand obedient to the mind can penetrate to this image.

Serene I fold my hands and wait.

However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man.