Great Throughts Treasury

"I need a text which stimulates me; it must be something moral, uplifting. Texts such as Mozart composed I should never have been able to set to music. I could never have got myself into a mood for licentious texts. I have received many librettos, but, as I have said, none that met my wishes."

"I need a steady, quiet life."

"I never practice revenge. When I must antagonize others I do no more than is necessary to protect myself against them, or prevent them from doing further evil."

"I never wrote noisy music. For my instrumental works I need an orchestra of about sixty good musicians. I am convinced that only such a number can bring out the quickly changing graduations in performance."

"I never write a work continuously, without interruption. I am always working on several at the same time, taking up one, then another."

"I recognize no other accomplishments or advantages than those which place one amongst the better class of men; where I find them, there is my home."

"I shall not come in person, since that would be a sort of farewell, and farewells I have always avoided."

"I shall seize Fate by the throat; it shall certainly not bend and crush me completely."

"I seldom go anywhere since it was always impossible for me to associate with people where there was not a certain exchange of ideas."

"I shall print a request in all the newspapers that henceforth all artists refrain from painting my picture without my knowledge; I never thought that my own face would bring me embarrassment."

"I spend all my mornings with the muses;?and they bless me also in my walks."

"I told Goethe my opinion as to how applause affects men like us, and that we want our equals to hear us understandingly! Emotion suits women only; music ought to strike fire from the soul of a man."

"I was formerly inconsiderate and hasty in the expression of my opinions, and thereby I made enemies. Now I pass judgment on no one, and, indeed, for the reason that I do not wish to do any one harm. Moreover, in the last instance I always think: if it is something decent it will maintain itself in spite of all attack and envy; if there is nothing good and sound at the bottom of it, it will fall to pieces of itself, bolster it up as one may."

"I share deeply with you the righteous sorrow over the death of your wife. It seems to me that such a parting, which confronts nearly every married man, ought to keep one in the ranks of the unmarried."

"I will hear in heaven!"

"I would have gone to death, yes, ten times to death for Goethe. Then, when I was in the height of my enthusiasm, I thought out my 'Egmont' music. Goethe,?he lives and wants us all to live with him. It is for that reason that he can be composed. Nobody is so easily composed as he. But I do not like to compose songs."

"I will take fate by the throat; it will never bend me completely to its will."

"I will grapple with Fate; it shall not quite bear me down. O, it is lovely to live life a thousand times!"

"I would rather forget what I owe to myself than what I owe to others."

"I would rather write 10,000 notes than a single letter of the alphabet."

"I, too, am a king!"

"Ich werde im Himmel h”ren! (I will hear in heaven!)"

"If he is a master of his instrument I rank an organist amongst the first of virtuosi. I too, played the organ a great deal when I was young, but my nerves would not stand the power of the gigantic instrument."

"In my solitude here I miss my roommate, at least at evening and noon, when the human animal is obliged to assimilate that which is necessary to the production of the intellectual, and which I prefer to do in company with another."

"If it amuses them to talk and write about me in that manner, let them go on."

"If I were a general and knew as much about strategy as I, a composer, know about counterpoint, I'd give you fellows something to do."

"If I could give as definite expression to my thoughts about my illness as to my thoughts in music, I would soon help myself."

"In order to become a capable composer one must have already learned harmony and counterpoint at the age of from seven to eleven years, so that when the fancy and emotions awake one shall know what to do according to the rules."

"In reading rapidly a multitude of misprints may pass unnoticed because you are familiar with the language."

"In praise of Thy goodness I must confess that Thou didst try with all Thy means to draw me to Thee. Sometimes it pleased Thee to let me feel the heavy hand of Thy displeasure and to humiliate my proud heart by manifold castigations. Sickness and misfortune didst Thou send upon me to turn my thoughts to my errantries.?One thing, only, O Father, do I ask: cease not to labor for my betterment. In whatsoever manner it be, let me turn to Thee and become fruitful in good works."

"In the country I know no lovelier delight than quartet music."

"It has always been known that the greatest pianoforte players were also the greatest composers; but how did they play? Not like the pianists of today who prance up and down the key-board with passages in which they have exercised themselves,?putsch, putsch, putsch;?what does that mean? Nothing. When the true pianoforte virtuosi played it was always something homogeneous, an entity; it could be transcribed and then it appeared as a well thought-out work. That is pianoforte playing; the other is nothing!"

"Inasmuch as the purpose of the undersigned throughout his career has not been selfish but the promotion of the interests of art, the elevation of popular taste and the flight of his own genius toward loftier ideals and perfection, it was inevitable that he should frequently sacrifice his own advantages and profit to the muse."

"It is man's habit to hold his fellow man in esteem because he committed no greater errors. Belief on their part that you are wiser than they...Without tears fathers cannot inculcate virtue in their children, or teachers learning and wisdom in their pupils; even the laws, by compelling tears from the citizens, compel them also to strive for justice."

"It is my wish that you may have at better and freer life than I have had. Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience; this was what upheld me in time of misery."

"It is difficult to find a good poem. Grillparzer has promised to write one for me,?indeed, he has already written one; but we cannot understand each other. I want something entirely different than he."

"It is a singular sensation to see and hear one's self praised, and then to be conscious of one's own imperfections as I am. I always regard such occasions as admonitions to get nearer the unattainable goal set for us by art and nature, hard as it may be."

"It is my sincere desire that whatever shall be said of me hereafter shall adhere strictly to the truth in every respect regardless of who may be hurt thereby, me not excepted."

"It is one of my foremost principles never to occupy any other relations than those of friendship with the wife of another man. I should never want to fill my heart with distrust towards those who may chance someday to share my fate with me, and thus destroy the loveliest and purest life for myself."

"It is not my custom to prattle away my purposes, since every intention once betrayed is no longer one's own."

"It is no comfort for men of the better sort to say to them that others also suffer; but, alas! comparisons must always be made, though they only teach that we all suffer, that is err, only in different ways."

"It is only becoming in a youth to combine his duties toward education and advancement with those which he owes to his benefactor and supporter; this I did toward my parents."

"It is the duty of every composer to be familiar with all poets, old and new, and himself choose the best and most fitting for his purposes."

"It seemed unthinkable for me to leave the world forever before I had produced all that I felt called upon to produce"

"It is very true that a drop will hollow a stone; a thousand lovely impressions are obliterated when children are placed in wooden institutions while they might receive from their parents the most soulful impressions which would continue to exert their influence till the latest age."

"It was not intentional and premeditated malice which led me to act toward you as I did; it was my unpardonable carelessness."

"It was impossible for me to say to others: speak louder; shout! For I am deaf. Ah! was it possible for me to proclaim a deficiency in that one sense which in my case ought to have been more perfect than in all others, which I had once possessed in greatest perfection, to a degree of perfection, indeed, which few of my profession have ever enjoyed?"

"K. M. Weber began to learn too late; art did not have a chance to develop naturally in him, and his single and obvious striving is to appear brilliant."

"It's the same with humanity; here, too (in suffering), he must show his strength, i.e. endure without knowing or feeling his nullity, and reach his perfection again for which the Most High wishes to make us worthy."

"It was not the fortuitous meeting of the chordal atoms that made the world; if order and beauty are reflected in the constitution of the universe, then there is a God."