Quote collection
134 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"The vibrations on the air are the breath of God speaking to man's soul. Music is the language of God. We musicians are as close to God as man can be. We hear his voice, we read his lips, we give birth to the children of God, who sing his praise. That's what musicians are."
"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents."
"I wish you music to help with the burdens of life ,and to help you release your happiness to others."
"Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine."
"Life would be flat without music. It is the background to all I do. It speaks to the heart in its own special way like nothing else."
"To play without passion is inexcusable!"
"What I have in my heart and soul - must find a way out. That's the reason for music."
"Then let us all do what is right, strive with all our might toward the unattainable, develop as fully as we can the gifts God has given us, and never stop learning"
"An artist is someone who has learned to trust in himself."
"Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors."
"Hide your secret even from the closest friend; learn to be silent."
"Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman."
"Do you think I give a damn about your and your pathetic violin?"
"Music is indeed the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life."
"Music can change the world."
"What will be the judgment a century hence concerning the lorded works of our favorite composers today? Inasmuch as nearly everything is subject to the changes of time, and - more's the pity- the fashions of time, only that which is good and true will endure like a rock and no wanton hand will ever venture to defile it. Then, let every man do that which is right, strive with all his might towards the goal which can never be obtained, develop to the last breath the gifts with which the gracious Creator has endowed him, and never cease to learn. For life is short, art eternal."
"What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven."
"I haven't a single friend; I must live alone. But well I know that God is nearer to me than to the others of my art; I associate with Him without fear, I have always recognized and understood Him, and I have no fear for my music,-it can meet no evil fate. Those who understand it must become free from all the miseries that the others drag with them."
"Never forget the days I spent with you. Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours."
"From the glow of enthusiasm I let the melody escape. I pursue it. Breathless I catch up with it. It flies again, it disappears, it plunges into a chaos of diverse emotions. I catch it again, I seize it, I embrace it with delight... I multiply it by modulations, and at last I triumph in the first theme. There is the whole symphony."