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The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

Michelangelo (attributed)

Philosophy

The story behind the card

Nothing like this appears in Michelangelo's letters, poems or early biographies. The earliest known printing is in E. C. McKenzie's Mac's Giant Book of Quips and Quotes (1980), with no author named; collections began crediting Michelangelo in the late 1990s. The name may have stuck because of his own career: known above all as a sculptor, he took on the Sistine Chapel ceiling in 1508 with little experience of fresco and finished it four years later.

Türkçe oku
Çoğumuz için en büyük tehlike, hedefi çok yüksek tutup ıskalamak değil, çok alçak tutup tutturmaktır.
Michelangelo (atfedilir)

Michelangelo'nun mektuplarında, şiirlerinde ya da ilk biyografilerinde buna benzer bir söz yoktur. Bilinen en eski basımı, E. C. McKenzie'nin 1980 tarihli Mac's Giant Book of Quips and Quotes adlı derlemesindedir ve orada hiçbir isim verilmez. Derlemeler sözü 1990'ların sonundan itibaren Michelangelo'ya bağlamaya başladı. Bu yakıştırmanın tutmasında kendi hayatının da payı olabilir: Her şeyden önce heykeltıraş olarak tanınan Michelangelo, fresk deneyimi az olmasına rağmen 1508'de Sistina Şapeli'nin tavanını üstlendi ve dört yıl sonra bitirdi.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Michelangelo
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