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.

My mind and fingers have worked like the damned. Homer, the Bible, Plato, Locke, Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Beethoven, Bach, Hummel, Mozart, Weber are all around me. I study them. I devour them with fury.

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.

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.

Beware of missing chances; otherwise it may be altogether too late some day.

Sorrowful and great is the artist's destiny.

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