1. “It is strange how one feels drawn forward without knowing at first where one is going.”
2. “Melodic invention is one of the surest signs of divine gift.”
3. “Never let oneself be guided by the opinion of one’s contemporaries. Continue steadfastly on one’s way.”
4. “All that is not perfect down to the smallest detail is doomed to perish.”
5. “If you think you’re boring your audience, go slower not faster.”
6. “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”
7. “A full cup of wine at the right time is worth more than all the kingdoms on this earth!”
8. “What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.”
9. “I don’t choose what I compose. it chooses me.”
10. “A symphony must be like the world. it must contain everything.”
11. “If a composer could say what he has to say in words he could not bother trying to say it in music.”
12. “You must renounce all superficiality, all convention, all vanity and delusion.”
13. “To write a symphony is, for me, to construct a world.”
14. “It is easier to achieve a desire result in short pieces.”
15. “God can only be comprehended as Love.”
16. “Life’s been nothing but paperwork.”
17. “Destiny smiles upon me but without making me the least bit happier.”
18. “The real art of conducting consists in transitions.”
19. “The impressions of the spiritual experience gave my future life its form and consent.”
20. “To judge a composer’s work, one must consider it as whole.”
21. “The call of love sounds very hollow among these immobile rocks.”
22. “Tradition is the spreading of fire and not veneration of ashes.”
23. “Even if people censure me, they should do so hat in hand.”
24. “The spirit can assert itself only through the medium of clear form.”
25. “Fortunately, something always remains to be harvested. So let us not be idle.”
26. “In its beginnings, music was merely chamber music, meant to be listened to in a small space by a small audience.”
27. “I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.”
28. “I was a crazy young man who let himself be blinded by his passions and obeyed only the impulses of the moment.”
29. “It’s just a question of conquering a summit previously unknown, but of tracing, step by step, a new pathway to it.”
30. “It should be one’s sole endeavor to see everything afresh and create it anew.”
