To judge a composer's work, one must consider it as a whole.

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.

If a man wants you, nothing can keep him away. If he doesn't want you, nothing can make him stay.

There's nothing I can do to erase the shadow of misery and despair from the eyes looking back at me from the photos [that I took in Afghanistan].

If we have the power and the means, then we must help.

God is only as far as we imagine Him to be. It's our fleshly desire not to run to Him that is ultimately our downfall.

The important thing is not the camera but the eye.

They're singing your praises while stealing your phrases.

Usually the modest person passes for someone reserved, the silent for a sullen person

We’'ve broken the code base into logical chunks, called modules, and the foundation staff delegate authority for the modules to people with the most expertise.

On an instrument you start from one tone. In painting you start from several.

Fungi are the grand recyclers of the planet and the vanguard species in habitat restoration.