Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Tradition is laziness.
Life's been nothing but paperwork.
Discipline, work. Work, discipline.
God can only be comprehended as Love.
With the coming of spring, I am calm again.
An operetta is simply a small and gay opera.
I don't choose what I compose. It chooses me.
The real art of conducting consists in transitions.
To write a symphony is, for me, to construct a world.
Don't bother to look, I've composed all this already.
What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.
Tradition is tending the flame, not worshiping the ashes.
It is easier to achieve a desired result in short pieces.
Even if people censure me, they should do so hat in hand.
If I weren't the way I am, I shouldn't write my symphonies.
To judge a composer's work, one must consider it as a whole.
A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.
Melodic invention is one of the surest signs of a divine gift.
Don't bother looking at the view - I have already composed it.
If you think you're boring your audience, go slower not faster.
The call of love sounds very hollow among these immobile rocks.
Tradition is the spreading of fire and not the veneration of ashes.
Destiny smiles upon me but without making me the least bit happier.
The spirit can assert itself only through the medium of clear form.
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.
In Bach, the vital cells of music are united as the world is in God.
I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.
Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking.
All that is not perfect down to the smallest detail is doomed to perish.
I live like a Hottentot. I cannot exchange one sensible word with anyone.
I beg of you... never assume an inner or an outer pose, never a disguise.
Only when I experience do I compose - only when I compose do I experience.
Both my marriages were failures! Number one departed, and number two stayed
It should be one’s sole endeavor to see everything afresh and create it anew.
Fortunately, something always remains to be harvested. So let us not be idle.
It should be one's sole endeavor to see everything afresh and create it anew.
You must renounce all superficiality, all convention, all vanity and delusion.
What I wanted and what I visualized while composing has not always been realized.
There is a world of difference between a Mahler eighth note and a normal eighth note.
It is strange how one feels drawn forward without knowing at first where one is going.
A full cup of wine at the right time is worth more than all the kingdoms of this earth!
The impressions of the spriritual experiences gave my future life its form and content.
I don't let myself get carried away by my own ideas; I abandon 19 out of 20 of them every day.
I don't let myself get carried away by my own ideas - I abandon 19 out of 20 of them every day.
I hope you will no longer accuse me of a lack of delicacy. as I now count on your understanding.
If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.
Spring won't let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.
Never let oneself be guided by the opinion of one's contemporaries. Continue steadfastly on one's way.
I have become a different person. I don't know whether this person is better, he certainly is not happier.
In the theatrical works we love and admire the most, the ending of the drama generally takes place offstage.