The longer you live and the more you learn, the more clearly you will feel the difference between the few men who are truly great and the mere virtuosi.

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.

An operetta is simply a small and gay opera.

To write a symphony is, for me, to construct a world.

The call of love sounds very hollow among these immobile rocks.

I beg of you... never assume an inner or an outer pose, never a disguise.