"A good Cuban cigar closes the doors to the vulgarities of the world."
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Quote collection
Franz Liszt quotes (page 2 of 3)
47 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I am not fond of speaking about politics because I don't have in my possession an army of 200,000 soldiers."
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"Broad paths are open to every endeavour, and a sympathetic recognition is assured to every one who consecrates his art to the divine services of a conviction of a consciousness."
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"As for famous men who were not artists, I am beginning to be tired of them. Those poor little scoundrels who are called great men fill me with nothing but overwhelming horror."
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"I did not compose my work as one might put on a church vestment... rather it sprung from the truly fervent faith of my heart, such as I have felt it since my childhood."
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"Sorrowful and great is the artist's destiny."
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"Music is never stationary; successive forms and styles are only like so many resting-places - like tents pitched and taken down again on the road to the Ideal."
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"Supreme serenity still remains the Ideal of great Art. The shapes and transitory forms of life are but stages toward this Ideal, which Christ's religion illuminates with His divine light."
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"You cannot imagine how it spoils one to have been a child prodigy."
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"I foster a sorrowful conception of affection. Make no sacrifices."
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"Oral musical traditions are rooted in assured and scrupulous faith."
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"The principal task of a conductor is not to put himself in evidence but to disappear behind his functions as much as possible. We are pilots, not servants."
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"I find little in the works of Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner and others when they are led by a conductor who functions like a windmill."
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"Brahms' Variations are better than mine, but mine were written before his."
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"Companions, in misery and worse, that is what we all are, and to try to change this substantially avails us nothing."
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"In the oldest chronicles of the times conserved in Hungary, reports will be found of Gypsy music, but never of any other, either Magyar, Slavic or Jewish."
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"When you write the story of two happy lovers, let the story be set on the banks of Lake Como."
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"The supreme harmony of the cosmos is selected in the harmony of the spirit."
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"I conclude that the Wagnerian operas which are already in the repertoire, and other masterworks as well, stand in no further need of my services."
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"A theatre receives recognition through its initiative, which is indispensable for first-rate performances."
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