The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world; it will accept those whom breeding and intellect and culture have alike rejected.

What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives? They have never entered into mine, but into yours, we thought--Haven't we all to struggle against life's daily greyness, against pettiness, against mechanical cheerfulness, against suspicion? I struggle by remembering my friends; others I have known by remembering some place--some beloved place or tree--we thought you one of these.

I seem fated to pass through the world without colliding with it or moving it — and I'm sure I can't tell you whether the fate's good or evil. I don't die — I don't fall in love. And if other people die or fall in love they always do it when I'm just not there.

It is the vice of a vulgar mind to be thrilled by bigness.

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is the most sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man.

There are occasions when I would rather feel like a fly than a spider.

If Miss Honeychurch ever takes to live as she plays, it will be very exciting--both for us and for her.