Oh, you happy sons of the North who have been reared at the bosom of Bach, how I envy you!

I have striven for perfection, it has always eluded me, but I surely had an obligation to make one more try.

To copy the truth can be a good thing, but to invent the truth is better, much better.

I adore art...when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear.

It is better to invert reality than to copy it.

It may be a good thing to copy reality; but to invent reality is much, much better.

The artist must yield himself to his own inspiraton, and if he has a true talent, no one knows and feels better than he what suits him.

Stupid criticism and still more stupid praise.

The success of our operas rests most of the time in the hands of the conductor. This person is as necessary as a tenor or a prima donna.

Of all composers, past and present, I am the least learned. I mean that in all seriousness, and by learning I do not mean knowledge of music.

Oh blessed a thousand times the peasant who is born, eats and dies without anybody bothering about his affairs.

Long ago, I stopped buying- let alone reading, books that talk about organizational success but fail to emphasize the importance of TRUST

Cherish your emotions and never undervalue them.

Some people have a difficult time facing truth and reality. They prefer to live in a make-believe world, pretending that certain things aren't happening.

Peace is a natural effect of trade.

I'm just tryin to be somebody I can talk to in the morning with a smile.

Real love amounts to withholding the truth, even when you're offered the perfect opportunity to hurt someone's feelings.

If the national coach lets decisions be made from outside, he's lost the team.

In the 2000s, I became an artist. I started preserving and educating. I became more obsessed with making iPod playlists for people.

The question is not "To be or not to be," it is what we should be until we are not.

I said i was dying not that i wanted to live”