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

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.

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.

In its beginnings, music was merely chamber music, meant to be listened to in a small space by a small audience.

Was I a secret not worth sharingOrWas I a fact not worth telling?

Unfortunately, mental health is so misunderstood that some people think you have to be crazy to need to speak to a therapist.

From the trunk of their scheme, choices and decisions sprouted like branches and shoots.

My father got me strong and straight and slim And I give thanks to him. My mother bore me glad and sound and sweet I kiss her feet.

A government that can take all and can seize all, a government that doesn't trust its citizens, a government that says it's their way or the highway... that's the scary part.

I really think of the studio as being like craftsmanship time, and then playing is about releasing energy, and the two are really different.

The things we like best are either illegal, immoral or fattening.

I never thought that I was very intelligent

All wars are fought for the sake of getting money.

I think that Congress's ability to reason is fully equal to that of the judiciary.