I order that my funeral ceremonies be extremely modest, and that they take place at dawn or at the evening Ave Maria, without song or music.

Oh, you happy sons of the North who have been reared at the bosom of Bach, how I envy you!

Through care taken over trends, the desire to be novel and affectation knowledge, we repudiate our art, our instinct, our own way of doing things; it is absurd and stupid

I deny that either singers or conductors can "create" or work creatively - this, as I have always said, is a conception that leads to the abyss.

It is better to invert reality than to copy it.

I order that my funeral ceremonies be extremely modest, and that they take place at dawn or at the evening Ave Maria, without song or music.

It may be a good thing to copy reality; but to invent reality is much, much better.