Lord Free Me Of Myself, So I

I Criticise By Creation, Not By Finding Fault.

Let Whoever May Have Attained To So Much As To Have The Power Of Drawing Know That He Holds A Great Treasure.

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.

The Promises Of This World Are, For The Most Part, Vain Phantoms; And To Confide In One's Self, And Become Something Of Worth And Value Is The Best And Safest Course.

The Best Of Artists Has No Conception That The Marble Alone Does Not Contain Within Itself.