The Mystery of Living Marble: Secrets of sculpture creation revealed

From early childhood, we were taught to imagine a sculptor only in this way, but this represents the entirety of their tools.
Who doesn’t know Michelangelo Buonarroti's phrase about a piece of marble from which one needs to cut away all the excess?
Moreover, the Latin word 'sculpo' translates as 'I carve,' 'I cut out.' So, how much of this marble was used to create all these statues, vases, columns, and other necessary imitations in ancient life?

Why bother? There's an entire palace in St. Petersburg made of pure marble. Let’s not forget that not everyone managed to achieve Michelangelo's mastery,
so we should attribute a vast amount of marble to the trembling hand of a novice. After all, if the chisel goes deeper than necessary, it cannot be corrected.
It's not a painting; you can't erase the mark with an eraser or cover it up. And we don't need just any marble, but a solid piece of uniform tonality.