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The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor's hand can only break read more
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
 The scupltor does not work for the anatomist, but for the common 
observer of life and nature.  
 The scupltor does not work for the anatomist, but for the common 
observer of life and nature. 
 Not from a vain or shallow thought
 His awful Jove young Phidias brought.  
 Not from a vain or shallow thought
 His awful Jove young Phidias brought. 
Then marble, soften'd into life, grew warm.
Then marble, soften'd into life, grew warm.
 In sculpture did ever anybody call the Apollo a fancy piece? Or 
say of the Laocoon how it might read more 
 In sculpture did ever anybody call the Apollo a fancy piece? Or 
say of the Laocoon how it might be made difference? A 
masterpiece of art has in the mind a fixed place in the chain of 
being, as much as a plant or a crystal. 
I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don't need.
I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don't need.
All my life as an artist I have asked myself: What pushes me continually to make sculpture? I have found read more
All my life as an artist I have asked myself: What pushes me continually to make sculpture? I have found the answer. art is an action against death. It is a denial of death.
 The marble index of a mind forever
 Voyaging through strange seas of thought, alone.  
 The marble index of a mind forever
 Voyaging through strange seas of thought, alone. 
 From the feet, Hercules.
 [Lat., Ex pede Herculem.]  
 From the feet, Hercules.
 [Lat., Ex pede Herculem.]