But it's peculiar, as soon as I am in the midst of nature and by myself, everything that is base and trivial vanishes without trace. On such days nothing scares me; and this helps me again and again.

I hope you will no longer accuse me of a lack of delicacy. as I now count on your understanding.

All that is not perfect down to the smallest detail is doomed to perish.

If I weren't the way I am, I shouldn't write my symphonies.

In its beginnings, music was merely chamber music, meant to be listened to in a small space by a small audience.

Tradition is the spreading of fire and not the veneration of ashes.

Life's been nothing but paperwork.