Life is only a long and bitter suicide, and faith alone can transform this suicide into a sacrifice.

Music is the heart of life." She speaks love; "without it, there is no possible good and with it everything is beautiful.

I find little in the works of Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner and others when they are led by a conductor who functions like a windmill.

I foster a sorrowful conception of affection. Make no sacrifices.

When you write the story of two happy lovers, let the story be set on the banks of Lake Como.

Music is never stationary; successive forms and styles are only like so many resting-places - like tents pitched and taken down again on the road to the Ideal.

The music of the Gypsies belongs in the sphere of improvisation rather than in any other, without which it would have no power to exist.