The character of instrumental music... lets the emotions radiate and shine in their own character without presuming to display them as real or imaginary representations.

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 day will come when all nations amidst which the Jews are dwelling will have to raise the question of their wholesale expulsion, a question which will be one of life or death, good health or chronic disease, peaceful existence or perpetual social fever.

A good Cuban cigar closes the doors to the vulgarities of the world.

I carry a deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound.

The supreme harmony of the cosmos is selected in the harmony of the spirit.