Never let oneself be guided by the opinion of one's contemporaries. Continue steadfastly on one's way.

Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.

If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.

Beauty and fullness of tone can be achieved by having the whole orchestra play with high clarinets and a carefully selected number of piccolos.

You must renounce all superficiality, all convention, all vanity and delusion.

The point is not to take the world's opinion as a guiding star but to go one's way in life and working unerringly, neither depressed by failure nor seduced by applause.

What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.

A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.

But it's peculiar, as soon as I am in the midst of nature and by myself, everything that is base and trivial vanishes without trace. On such days nothing scares me; and this helps me again and again.

I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.

If you think you're boring your audience, go slower not faster.

Why we love with close heartsWhy we love with souls apart Let the love flow from hearts to souls, Let the world glow

I didn't know how to say goodbye. Words were stupid. They said so little. Yet they opened up holes you could fall into and never climb out of again.

Nothing shatters the relationship between you and your boss like you failing to meet expectations, deadlines, and goals.

Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.

Expect the most wonderful things to happen, not in the future but right now.

To call the State an organism shows a diseased tendency to make a fetish of words.

The truly healthy alternative to that chip is not a fake chip; it’s a carrot.

I went freelance in 1996 and my children are now teenagers and it seemed right.

Unwanted favours gain no gratitude.

It was then given me to know that the power of revitalization of my body was mine, and I, who had been pronounced dead by man, lived strongly in the body.