The point is not to take the world's opinion as a guiding star but to go one's way in life and working unerringly, neither depressed by failure nor seduced by applause.
I don't let myself get carried away by my own ideas; I abandon 19 out of 20 of them every day.
If I weren't the way I am, I shouldn't write my symphonies.
Even if people censure me, they should do so hat in hand.
The call of love sounds very hollow among these immobile rocks.
A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.