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

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.

Of all composers, past and present, I am the least learned. I mean that in all seriousness, and by learning I do not mean knowledge of music.

To copy the truth can be a good thing, but to invent the truth is better, much better.

I have striven for perfection, it has always eluded me, but I surely had an obligation to make one more try.

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.

Oh blessed a thousand times the peasant who is born, eats and dies without anybody bothering about his affairs.