It is necessary to keep one's compass in one's eyes and not in the hand, for the hands execute, but the eye judges.

The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.

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

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

Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.

Good painting is the kind that looks like sculpture.

A beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it.

Beauty is the purgation of superfluities.

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.