Joy is not in things; it is in us
Certain things in Mozart will and can never be excelled.
...music is the living God in our bosoms.
I am writing Parsifal only for my wife - if I had to depend on the German spirit, I should have nothing more to say.
It is impossible to communicate with Schumann. The man is hopeless; he doesn't talk at all.
The most tremendous genius raised Mozart above all masters, in all centuries and in all the arts.
Music truely has to all other arts the same relation as religion to the church.
The long-term vision is to replace, repair and regenerate failing tissues and organs with the materials of tissues and organs. It's still 'out there,' but it's possible to put together a grant proposal now that doesn't sound completely crazy.
...you know my faithfulness to you, never can another own my heart, never - never - never...
I know nothing at all about music.
The immoral profession of musical criticism must be abolished.
The purpose of art: to make the unconscious conscious.
Many's the man/ who thought himself wise/ but what he needed/ he did not know...
Any so-called stimulus program is a ruse. The government can increase its spending only by reducing private spending equivalently.
Achievements, seldom credited to their source, are the result of unspeakable drudgery and worries.
The only form of music is melody, without melody music is not feasible, and music and melody are quite inseparable.
Music is the inarticulate speech of the heart, which cannot be compressed into words, because it is infinite.
I believe in God, Mozart and Beethoven, and likewise their disciples and apostles; - I believe in the Holy Spirit and the truth of the one, indivisible Art; - I believe that this Art proceeds from God, and lives within the hearts of all illumined men; - I believe that he who once has bathed in the sublime delights of this high Art, is consecrate to Her for ever, and never can deny Her; - I believe that through Art all men are saved.
I regard the Jewish race as the born enemy of pure humanity and everything that is noble in it.
We must learn to die, and to die in the fullest sense of the word. The fear of the end is the source of all lovelessness
I hate this fast growing tendency to chain men to machines in big factories and deprive them of all joy in their efforts - the plan will lead to cheap men and cheap products.
When religion becomes artificial, art has a duty to rescue it. Art can show that the symbols which religions would have us believe literally true are actually figurative. Art can idealize those symbols, and so reveal the profound truths they contain.
The essence of higher instrumental music lays herein that one is able to express in tones that what one is unable to say in words.
Human dignity begins to assert itself only at the point where man is distinguishable from the beast by pity for it.
A political man is disgusting, but a political wife, horrible.
Imagination creates reality.
Never look at the trombones, it only encourages them.
I know of only one composer who measures up to Beethoven, and that is Bruckner.
The whole duty of a conductor is comprised in his ability to indicate the right tempo.
My destiny is solitude, and my life is work.
