Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.
Michelangelo Buonarroti Quotes
Genius is eternal patience.
What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot grasp the fact that the human foot is more noble than the shoe and the human skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed?
Even if you are divine, you don’t disdain male consorts. (Pietro Aretino to Michelangelo – November 1545)
You know that I know, my lord, that you know That I draw close to take pleasure in you, And you know that I know that you know who I am; So why do you delay our acknowledging each other? If true is the hope that you give to me, If true is the great […]
The earthy flesh, and here my bones deprived Of their charming face and beautiful eyes, Do yet attest for him how gracious I was in bed. When he embraced, and in what the soul doth live. (written for the tomb of 13 year old Francesco de Zanobi of whom he also called in a letter […]
Why whould I seek to ease intense desire With still more tears and windy words of grief? If only chains and bands can make me blest, No marvel if alone and naked I go An armed Cavaliere’s captive and slave confessed. (referring to Cavalieri -40 years his junior)
May I burn if I do not love thee with all my heart, And lose my soul, if I feel for any other! (letter to Tommaso Cavalieri -1532)
Lord grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.
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.
