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

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

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.

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

Companions, in misery and worse, that is what we all are, and to try to change this substantially avails us nothing.

I did not compose my work as one might put on a church vestment... rather it sprung from the truly fervent faith of my heart, such as I have felt it since my childhood.

Brahms' Variations are better than mine, but mine were written before his.