The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes.

The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought.

They are quite hopeless - drooling, driveling, doleful, depressing, dropsical drips.

Composers should write tunes that chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.

The trouble with women in an orchestra is that if they're attractive it will upset my players and if they're not it will upset me.

"Have you heard any Stockhausen?" Beecham was asked. "No, but I believe I have stepped in some."

Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands and all you can do is scratch it.

The sound of a harpsichord - two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm.

Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.

There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between.

It is quite untrue that British people don't appreciate music. They may not understand it but they absolutely love the noise it makes.

If you're to explain your works, then surely you have chosen wrong audience!

What is history but the story of how politicians have squandered the blood and treasure of the human race?

Napoleon Hill also rehashed 'thoughts create things' when he wrote Think & Grow Rich in 1937 (although it had taken him 25 years to complete).

Force and not opinion is the queen of the world; but it is opinion that uses the force. [Fr., La force est la reine du monde, et non pas l'opinion; mais l'opinion est celle qui use de la force.]

[Saddam Hussein is aggressively seeking nuclear and biological weapons and ] the United States may well become the target.

I had a notepad and I wrote down 30 things to make myself better just off the top of my head, and the next day I started to do that.

I always lived with guitarists. When they would leave, I would just pick up their acoustic guitars and start doing finger picking and write.

The person that said winning isn't everything, never won anything.

I didn't want a divorce but had to because of circumstance.